this is what gives academics a bad name!

[mary gillespie]

Surely the kind of puerile behaviour to which we've all been subjected is
unnecessary (at best!).

Can the effort to prove whose intellect is the most finely honed rest now?
Can the egos be put back in their boxes, and dialogue and discussion begin?
I imagine it is exactly this kind of thing that keeps many of us silent on
this list. The viciousness of this list is really quite astounding,
perturbing, and boring!

So, could there be a hiatus on the personal attacks and defences and
counter attacks et al? Could they be carried on off-list? It takes away
from the interesting and worthwhile discussions which are why people join
in the first place. Perhaps then others, like me, will not feel that they
are interrupting a private list?

Mary Gillespie

[Kerry Elliott]

I agree wholeheartedly with Mary but do not have her optimism and so I bid
adieu to those academic wankers who spoil it for the rest of us.
Au revoir!

[William B. Goodwin]

At 11:10 PM 4/21/99 -0700, you wrote:
>[...] The viciousness of this list is really quite astounding,
>perturbing, and boring!

It is indeed perturbing, though not at all astounding, and,
as spectacle, certainly not boring.

>So, could there be a hiatus on the personal attacks and defences and

>counter attacks et al? [...]
>Mary Gillespie

This seems somewhat unfair. Certainly one has a right to
defend oneself in the forum in which one was attacked.

Bill Goodwin