Hi Arto, you are one of the (if not the) oldest contributors to this list, and have been with it from the beginning. I'm sure that many of your contributions have been insightful and worthwile for many lutenetters. Perhaps it even gives you some kind of "special rights", to do what you do every once in a while, but IMO you are either very náve or rather cunning.
Take for instance this need to drop an anti-american bomb on the net twice a year or so, stopping all the other interesting threads going on at the moment, (which are such delicate, ephemeral and soon forgotten things). It is quite an arrogant and also destructive thing to do, if you really think about it! Although I can very well understand your frustration about the policy of the USA, especially under Bush. It's a frustration that is supposedly shared with a substantial part of today's world. (At least in Europe and the Middle East). What you are not taking into consideration is that this list is read by and contributed to, mainly by americans. How could you expect to influence them in any other way, than to make them defend their homeland and values? The handful of foreign contributors here don't have a chance in the world to achieve that. What did you achieve with your previous 3 or 4 incitements? Did you learn anything? IMO, many americans are not very interested in finding out or caring about what happens in the rest of the world. And why should they? They live in a soap-bubble world of their own. The USA is a *huge* continent. You can easily devote a whole lifetime trying to learn about it's history, geography, internal politics, etc. without having to care getting informed about the rest of the world, which is perhaps both a blessing and a curse. Sure, many say that the US today takes a much too huge space in the world, (just like a few of the people on this list), that it behaves imperialistically, that it's previous and present "help" to other nations was, (and is) conducted as a strategy for "self-agrandisation" or self-help, that it inundates the rest of the world with "crap" action movies, sex-fixation and values of a life-style that is detrimental to the planet, as doubtlessly is their over consumption of fossil fuels and other raw-materials. That it is a navel-gazing society, where 50% or more of the population don't even know where Finland is, and if they knew, wouldn't even care. That their arms-industry is bringing the planet to the brink of extinction, that their fundamentalist interpretation of christianity is just as bad as that of other religions, and the dollar is God. But IMV you are definitely adressing the wrong forum. The only thing you will achieve, (but perhaps that is your intention), is to raise the temperature a few degrees, bring out the usual hot-headed combattants, and sit back, while you see this thread degenerate into a muck-throwing contest that leads to nowhere. Perhaps that is also a form of catharsis, but I doubt it. It has been proved again and again, that the majority of lutenetters on this list are intensely tired with this sort of thing. For all I know, you have turned into an agent who tries to flush out those on the lutenet with anti-american sentiments, those "for us, or against us" to use a recent saying. At least this becomes the result of your behaviour, in which case I'm in deep s**t here! ;) No society is a homogenous society. Nowadays there seems to be a tendency to be either for or against, with the population divided roughly in the middle, as most polls show. A "third informed view" is usually either disregarded or ignored. See it as a sign of our times. A great majority of the americans on this list, seem to be friendly, peaceful, well-informed folks, sharing a love for the lute, (I hope) just like you and me. Some will be for Bush and american policy, some will be against. But (probably) most of them are still supporters of "the american way" and all what that stands for, and to change their views, you'd perhaps do better donning some messiah's garb or other and go out and preach them the right gospel (what in fact you are actually doing in a sort of fruitless modern internet way). Or join the militant fringes that are also fruitlessly trying to combat the (al)mighty USA through terrorist "mosquito-bites", that always only strike the innocent third-parties. Useless Arto, it won't work. People make up their own decisions and views, either letting themselves be brain-washed by media or through massive self-education, and what you or I have to say in this matter is really not relevant in the least, when it comes to politics or religion. Let's face it. The "mighty, arrogant capitalist US policy" is taking over the world today, whether we like it or not. Normal, simple, decent, peace loving people throughout the world are taking "the american way" to their hearts, even at the cost of loosing their own national identity, and there isn't a jot either you or I can do about it other than starting some doomsday-sect, joining Greenpeace or Amnesty or hiding in the Amazon jungle. So Arto, (and a few others on this list, no names mentioned, no one forgotten), stick to what you are best at. Contributing with insightful views and comments about the great lute matters we are all so fond of, and try to unite the people on the lutenet instead of antagonizing them. This is precisely why I have always abstained from trying to propagate religious or political views on this list. We've seen where it leads to. It can't be said enough times. There are heaps and heaps of lists, where people can discuss political or religious matters to their hearts content. There are very few lists, where lovers of the lute are able to do the same. Do you want to pollute it? So, hoping not to have come across as someone who equates destructive american policy-making with the (mostly) kind americans on this list, I have a lute-related question: Listening to Paul Beier's recording of the Michelagnolo Galilei 1620 publication, the second track, "Sonata in C-major" consists of a toccata and two voltae. The first volta has a very beautiful division not found in the facsimile. Did Beier make the division himself? Is it found in the Werl addenda published in the supplement of Lute News april 2002? Is it otherwise available somewhere? (I could pick it note by note from the recording, but would prefer not to, if it can be found somewhere in an easier way). Michelagnolo's music strikes a deep-felt chord these days... Best Regards Goeran To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
