I have been pondering the Hypothesis: Internet fora that do no have an explicit topic tend to become dominated by politics, broadly defined.
Evidence in favor of this hypothesis is that political people apparently do not mind spending a lot of words to make their points, so that when measured by word-count, political topics will tend to dominate. But there's nothing wrong with this. The reader is free to skim through -- or completely bypass -- writings about subjects the reader is uninterested in, and even on political topics, entertaining writing can save the day. An example is the part quoted below, wherein John M. makes the philosophical distinction between the cause of why he writes as he does -- ultimately, electrochemical events in his brain -- and the grounds justifying what he writes. Bravo. -- Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 7:27 AM Subject: Re: A clue to understand USA [looong snip] Sorry if that is overly pedantic for you, but I would bet others find it relatively concise and to the point. And I will gladly debate it with them if they wish. As for another one of your questions the other day, namely why I write posts to the list, well, you guessed it, Minoru, I am using Not Honyaku as a forum to make friends and influence people. Someone in the Obama campaign did in fact read my posts here, and invited me down to DC last week to nosh with Barry over a game of one-on-one. I shared my thoughts on Gaza and the auto industry with him while kicking his ass with my killer jump shot. Then it was off to the Elysee Palace for a state dinner with Nick and Carla. Nice chance to practice the old parlez-vous over hors d' and bubbly while giving Nick my ideas about that pesky Iranian nuclear program and the global financial crisis. But seriously, Minoru, there are three explanations for why I write my posts to the list. I will let you choose one: (1) The Augustinian Explanation: I cannot bear to see you and Alan wallowing in error, so I have no choice but to correct you and guide you to the Truth. (2) The Freudian Explanation: I am playing the role of superego to yours and Alan's unrestrained and malformed egos (I will omit a discussion of the relationship between poor toilet training as children and the contents of yours and Alan's posts). (3) The Obvious Explanation: I am interested in these subjects. Believe it or not, I took an entire course in college on the history of nuclear weapons in college. I still like to read about it when I can, though I certainly do not claim any expertise. I also have read a lot about Middle Eastern politics and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. This latter issue (like North Korea) interests me greatly, largely because there is a huge amount of misinformation and disinformation put out about it, as anyone who follows it objectively can attest. And it is an important issue as well, because of all the wars it has caused, and also the fact that Israel has nukes and other countries in the region, such as Iran, have intentions to do the same, and that could be big trouble for all of us. And writing about it has an additional benefit, which is that it clarifies the mind. At least it has that effect in my case; I would not want to extrapolate that to a couple the other list members I can think o f. Well, there we have it. I suppose I have once again exceeded my allotted word count, but then again, you are not moderating the list, Minoru, nor are you my schoolmarm, so your opinion about this is just that, another one of your opinions. For my part, I would appreciate it if you toned down your posts. They seem to be seething with various forms of envy and resentment. Not good for the soul, Minoru. John M. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages prior to posting, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
