People have to realize that when we're on pen-l, we're in Michael Perelman's living room. So he has the right to tell us to shut up or leave if he wants to. Period. He doesn't usually squelch a theoretical topic, but even if he does this it's his right. So we can't complain if he doesn't want the list to discuss our pet topics. If he wants to ban, say, "value theory" because it always seems to lead to excessively abstract discussions involving obscurely-based personal animosities, that's his right. If you don't like, go join another list -- or to paraphrase Scoop Nisker, go out and make your own list.
This, of course, is hypothetical: he hasn't banned that topic. That doesn't mean that everyone has to talk about it all the time, of course. For my part, I salute Michael for the great job he does in maintaining list decorum. It's a great service to the left, especially since most lists tend to break down in squabbling all the time. The current debate (Kliman vs. the RRPE)seems a lot like the divorce that two of my friends got into a few years ago. Because they were both friends, I didn't want to get between them. So I won't now, except to note that there seems to be an excessively high noise-to-signal ratio, too much emotion, too much throwing of metaphorical plates. Jim Devine
