Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Do They Say":
Don't ever banish them from the blog entirely Evelyn. Let them do themselves in with their own words.
Somewhere, John Stuart Mill is smiling.
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Thank you for your input. I have struggled with that decision. I rejected a comment I received before your own this morning. I've retrieved it. Not that it elevates any of us. Quite the opposite.
But I also think it doesn't deserve protection and most people familiar with the cast of characters will recognize that one.
John Stuart Mill is a familiar name. Now I will have to read what he had to say.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Do They Say":
Ha Ha Ha - Brilliant!
Bullshit makes the world go 'round and "Our Town and Its Business" is a huge supplier of same.
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Evelyn, John Stuart Mill was a philosopher (Scottish father, though born in England). Perhaps his most famous work was "On Liberty". Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia.
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On Liberty involves an impassioned defence of free speech. Mill argues that free discourse is a necessary condition for intellectual and social progress. We can never be sure, he contends, that a silenced opinion does not contain some element of the truth. He also argues that allowing people to air false opinions is productive for two reasons. First, individuals are more likely to abandon erroneous beliefs if they are engaged in an open exchange of ideas. Second, by forcing other individuals to re-examine and re-affirm their beliefs in the process of debate, these beliefs are kept from declining into mere dogma. It is not enough for Mill that one simply has an unexamined belief that happens to be true; one must understand why the belief in question is the true one.
Thank you 1:50 PM
ReplyDeleteLovely stuff !
Most of us know the cast of characters like stories told to frighten children. At one time, they scared the heck out of us. Now we can see that it is the same individuals who scroll down comments and drip acid. I've often pondered on the chance that such a group would form in the first place. Do they detect each other by smell ?
ReplyDeleteBut the true wonder is that another quite different group of wildly different people emerged just at the right time to stop the onslaught. What are the odds on that in such a small town?
So we can be a wee bit proud even though there is still some heavy lifting to be done. They are few but truly nasty and still capable of attacking anyone they view as weak or vulnerable.
And they still scare the heck out of me because I am unable to understand what makes them so filled with hate and fear.
Wow 5:05 you captured my concerns for Evelyn.
ReplyDelete@7:28 I looked up irony in the dictionary and found your picture.
ReplyDeleteNow I know who you are...
The past is the push for this blog.
ReplyDeleteThe past is no longer relevant.
It's now about reinvention.
It's now about destroying old institutions and inventing new ones.
You are presenting your point of view. Others are presenting theirs.
ReplyDeleteWho is right ?
No one.
I read your blog. I do not agree with your approach to politics or government.
I read it (infrequently) to see what your group thinks .
I rarely comment because you and your group are not open to different perspectives.
We are a society in transition.
All institutions will change.
That's where my energy must go.
Evelyn must make the cut but there has been a recent upsurge in negative remarks that complain but offer no insight whatsoever. What is most effective is to completely ignore those comments, don't waste a second on them. It was clear to see on the Citizen - it drove them mad not to have any response to their golden prose. Install your own personal 'ignore' button. Cheap and easy, work's a charm.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 19 January, 2012 5:05 PM said: "Most of us know the cast of characters like stories told to frighten children. At one time, they scared the heck out of us."
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll bite.... who is this "cast of characters" then? I don't know who they are. There is a theory of those conspiring here. I say name names!
12:23 PM
ReplyDeleteI remember the thinking was that they were not reading or thinking about what was said and we should just let them rave away. For some weird reason, it made them angrier to be posted and ignored than not posted
at all. Worth a try, but some are such sitting ducks. Hard to resist.