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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (45280)	3/7/2002 6:57:39 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

E - We just aren't going to see eye to eye on this. In my view, a discussion isn't a discussion if there are points of view expressed which some participants are prohibited from addressing because of who put the point of view out there. Ideas can, IMO, be divorced from individuals, and posting about an idea or thought does not constitute posting to or about the person who expresed the idea. Obviously, if the thought is something personal, then discussing it intrudes on the person. But if it is about an idea, thought, principle, or whatever, it is put out there in the markeplace of ideas and anybody should be free to address it. I look back to my four years in a college where a free and open discussion of ideas was the centerpiece of our education. I wonder what it would have been like if, in a seminar, one pair of people had been forbidden from not only addressing the other directly, but from referring to that other person's statements. Wouldn't work. Granted, this is not a college seminar. But I believe enough in the principle of discourse that I believe with some passion that discussions of ideas should be robust and open. I am willing not to address posts to Poet. I am willing not to discuss her personally, not to talk about her as a person. I am not willing to agree in advance not to talk about ideas just because of who puts them on the table. If that's not good enough, then it's not.