Posted by Willful on August 20, 2013, at 16:30:05
In reply to Re: please rephrase that » Dr. Bob, posted by 10derheart on August 20, 2013, at 13:26:47
This may seem irrelevant here-- but: --while I wouldn't want to ban someone, undeservedly, even for a week (or whatever Lou's ban for the moment would be), I would have to reflect a bit on what could occasion this sort of bitterness in someone who had been a trusted aide, or deputy. Of course, even trusted aides and deputies have irrational responses, and vulnerabilities that can't be charged to the account of the person who provokes the response. But then how do you account for all the community's ongoing distress at what Lou's repeatedly said and done?
It's easy to dismiss our wish to get rid of Lou as scapegoating, or as our collective attempt to banish our own anxiety or discouragement, fear of drugs, or of emotion of this or that-- and to weigh on the scale our seemingly emotional pleas, against some notion of neutral or distanced fairness to Lou who has irrationally become the locus of all dreads. It's easy to be blind Justice with a scale, and to believe that if you weigh fairness on one side, and our objections on the other, that the scales swing back and forth and that our feelings are not sufficiently heavy to weigh the scale down beyond reasonable doubt to the level of action.
And this seems to be the belief under which you defer any sanction-- and the image you have of yourself, as fair to a fairtheewell-- as just beyond all expectation of justice. Is there pressure? then refusing to bow to pressure seems the wise course. Except if the pressure is not just pressure-- but a message to you-- a sign of some truth that there you don't perceive.
Yes-- ironically, without Lou, psychobabble would for a while be a very dormant and possibly fatally wounded place. Because at least there is a flurry of passion and focus whenever a new poster appears whom Lou and "we" see as a target of opportunity. Lou, for his propaganda--or holy mission-- us for a new voice, a compatriot, who is the sign of future life.
I don't believe that Lou is to blame for the failure of this community to sustain itelf-- or that Bob's combined actions and absences in the last phase of activity here, way back when (although this is closer to the mark)-- or his long-term blocking algorithm, however ill-advised-- or the antiqueness of the board set-up-- or the recent dominance of social media-- or any these factors alone is the cause of our current dilemma.
But all that is really irrelevant. There is a false equivalence between the community and fairness to Lou-- that is easy to fall into-- and perhaps fits your temperament Bob--. If I were you, though, I would wonder about 10der's rage, and the disappointment and confusion that lies under the silence here.
Is it all irrational-- all about our own private struggles--- or is there some actual social wrong that needs to be righted? Well, we know what you'll say. Because you said it again and again. But I'd like to ask, is it really worth just blocking 10der, or is there something you don't perceive. Something that's strangled this place slowly but surely?
People don't become so pained for no reason-- and maybe you ought to ask, is there something that you need to do differently?
Willful
Emsam.
Abilify
Provigil
Rilutek
poster:Willful
thread:1046456
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20130702/msgs/1049377.html