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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (78879)	3/2/2003 11:47:13 AM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 281500

I'm taking you off ignore for this John. I'm not going to plow through the bazillion FADG posts looking for specific examples, but I'm sure Nadine will agree with me in spades on this. You have a tendency to dismiss what is not worded in sufficiently passive voice, or isn't from the "proper" sources, or (quite hilariously) isn't properly parenthetically notated. Form over content. I'm not asking you to "plow through a bazillion FADG posts" nor am I asking for you to see if Nadine agrees with you. I'm asking you for an illustration or two, off the top of the head of just what you have in mind. I would, of course, prefer, the exact language of a post. But that's the bazillion request. I will argue the illustration you offer with you. My own position, rather abstractly put, is as I've often suggested: form often becomes substance. The diplomatic failures of the Bush administration are a prime example. I think that topic is, not only a difference between us, which is fine, but is entirely appropriate for this thread. As for the second topic, as to whether academic departments are more "prone to intertia, risk aversion, and group think" than other large organizations, the best way to make that point is with some comparative studies. I don't, just off the top of my head, know of such. But I have little doubt something like that might be out there. In their absence, however, we have the evidence of your period as a student and some disgruntled folk put against my evidence of more than thirty years as a faculty member. That's all. Your experience is different from mine; your view of the world is different from mine. As the cliche goes, those differences make for a conversation. I see no reason to throw brickbats in order to have one. But it may well be that it's the sort of thing we have to agree to disagree about.