Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: List Culture and The FFL Post Count

[dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]]

There is good reason to lack trust in collaboration on FFL at Yahoo-groups by 
what has been allowed to become a dominant culture of a few here. Of a fear of 
getting needlessly ensnared by any participation of putting ones thoughts and 
self forward. Folks generally are denied the opportunity to think together with 
good people on FFL for all the snark of the ad hominem attack.It takes skills 
and practice to see discussion as thinking but it takes allies of kindness to 
think together creatively. For the engagement within a group [FFL] to be 
effective there need be folks and a moderation willing and able to stand up to 
bullies who would destroy forum, to have a thinking forum.Truth evidently won't 
'set us free' until we have the courage, skills, habit and moral courage to 
kindly explore it. There evidently are few allies of civil discourse on FFL and 
Rick Archer in moderation is seldom here to evenly protect civil discourse. 
Kind thoughtful discussion is up to the folks left here to seize if it can be 
had at all. Kind discourse has been 'thrown to the dogs' on FFL to tear up by a 
lack of moderation let alone any self-control.The bullies have run most wild 
here unchecked because nice people were not protected and thoughtful folks 
often inside are afraid of embroiling mean conflict upon themselves enough to 
invest in it, ..in provoking the bullying..“For the record, I apologize for 
nothing. Rien. Nada. Nichevo. Bupkus. I meant everything I've ever said here, 
and stand by it fully.”In thinking together, people often may fail in process 
of creative thought out of fears to extend themselves individually in to the 
collective, for fear of engaging with evidently untrustworthy folks. Engagement 
that may provoke unfriendly embroilment which potentially might be brought on 
to themselves by stepping forward in conversation. 'Thinking as process' takes 
skills and practice to see dissonances as thinking and get good at it, to get 
beyond ego and not let it get out of control. Too many of the writers in 
character writing here derail creative thinking on FFL by their default to the 
assault of the personal invective instead of just commenting on a substance of 
the material brought. That abusive character has been really unfortunate for 
the larger FFL community.The challenge of FFL as a forum community is to find 
constructive ways of engaging with people. That takes kindness, tolerance and 
patience as skillsets and practice to be able to think together and be 
creative, to look at and solve problems together. FFL is a long ways from that 
by a grip of vice of some folks who dominate FFL.Collaborating in 
'Disconfirmation': seeking different ways of looking at models, of 'thinking' 
in constructive conflict.Thoughtful conversation seems a willing kind 
collaborative, a kind cooperative 'process in disconfirmation'. By contrast a 
trust in kindness as element has been driven out of Fairfieldlife at 
Yahoo-groups by a dominant methodical use of personal invective in the ad 
hominem used as weapon to personally hurt people here.Collaboration in a type 
of, Love? In kindness to a creative process?Quite evidently thoughtful 
conversation takes a civil kind collaboration in self-control to have 
productive conversation. Some have done their poisonous work here with the 
communal well-spring.Collaboration? Could many folks dare at all to publicly 
disagree here on FFL anymore given the lack of self-restraint in the culture 
that remains on FFL? What is mostly missing now from the dominant FFL writing 
is a kindness to process, a love enough of collaboration that seems necessary 
enough for there to be creative thinking between people. Instead what we have 
is a culture of rudeness that has long interrupted the communal thinking here 
and driven people away.The cultural place that was FFL seems to have been 
poisoned. The place evidently has died for lack of a willing collaboration as 
an oxygen that could include other points of view other than some caustic 
character of dominant internet haters and personalities in method. The cost to 
FairfieldLife at Yahoo-groups has been the loss of a forum for communal 
thinking.A pervasive unkindness in ad hominem-istic snark parading as 
'intellectual retort', it's the dominant 'culture' here at FFL now, as the 
evident lack in thoughtful community culture here. Folks otherwise have come 
instead to fear to spend their time thinking here reading let alone posting 
here.  It is a sad commentary on how it has gone down for FFL. Many of the 
writers left here have in many ways become the people they revile, bullies like 
they see Bevan or others in the movement community.Salon, saloon or shalom; who 
would enter in to a place met with the likes of, “You Suck..” or “Fuck you” as 
first text lines or “You lying Fuck” as a subject heading? MJ, there was a long 
period of a poisonous malignancy here in the postings between a few people who 
came on before you came along and added to it in your way. FFL is just not a 
safe place for well-meaning people to loiter or join in hence most folks 
wandered out. Meditators and people around Fairfield here always go 'whew-phew' 
and roll their eyes about the reputation of FFL as a place for thoughtful 
dialogue whence FFL gets mentioned. FFL got wrecked a while ago as a community 
place that way. mjackson74 wrote, well Buck how do you account for the 
departure of all the people who used to post on FFL in the years before I 
joined? Looking back at the archives, there were a whole bunch of folk who had 
already dropped out before I came along, so the fact that Judy, Anne, Jimmy the 
Enlightened and Nappy Nabby jumped ship does not seem to be that much of a 
recent trend.Yep, even Rick chooses to post substantial material elsewhere now 
instead of posting to FFL as to just shark-feeding for what is left remaining 
of FFL. A long list of people is now gone before us who had once helped further 
the culture of the list, mostly been driven off by an aggressive and appalling 
unkindness of culture in the ongoing personal shark-like attack by the ad 
hominem that evidently has become endemic here; that seeming 'professionals' 
default to use in their writing method instead of simply dealing with material 
posed. And those same complain about originality, thinking and lack of 
creativity..Nothing to see here folks. Just another person trying to blame the 
fact that he and the people he likes can't think of anything intelligent to say 
on the people they don't like.  :-)Good timing, Turqb,Left or driven off?  This 
as your thinking is fine as intelligent retort on one level Anartaxius except, 
the low post and dwindled active member counts may show something else.Looking 
in on the culture of what is FFL now, is it a surprise the numbers have dropped 
off when there is so much about Fairfield or larger spiritual matter being 
talked about otherwise by others actively involved in it? No, it is like the 
well was poisoned here by some.Ironically there is an evident invective that is 
intolerance to conversation here and to divergent idea by a concentration of 
some few who remain active posting here.If could be we are just getting on with 
our lives. Now that most of the TB crazies have left, some of the tart, sharp 
conversation has dwindled, and there are less opportunities for intelligent 
retorts. I think you would have welcomed the change. 'Intelligent retort'?We've 
not been very good at discussion here for some time on FFL and the place as a 
forum is nearly dead.Yep, visiting looking back in on Fairfieldlife at 
yahoo-groups evidently this is mostly a sad inhospitable place rendered down to 
some pulp substance of travelogue, movie reviews and the personal bickerings of 
a few.  Om, for what once was Fairfieldlife,Sooooooooooo, turns out that there 
WERE ZERO posts since last night.Just another tell that FFL is going down for 
the count.