[Reader-list] A Request

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all,

I unequivocally condemn the CPI(M) led Left Front government's reign of 
terror in West Bengal. I have written about the Nandigram issue on this 
list in the past, (in March this year) and so will not repeat myself on 
this matter.

I also think that the CPI(M)'s paralysing control over cultural and 
intellectual life in West Bengal, and the poverty of its own 
intellectual resources stands nakedly and totally exposed today.

Having said all this, I would request all those on this list who have 
expressed their anger on this issue (which I sympathize with) to not do 
the following.

1. Post private (off-list) correspondence on to the public forum of the 
list without the consent of the correspondents.

2. Use personalized invective and abuse in your communications on the list

Those who have done the above may have done so in genuine dismay or 
anger, but it does their cause great damage.I say this in solidarity 
with their feelings, and in criticism of their actions.

We have learnt a great deal in the past few months on this list about 
the need to cultivate a certain degree of restraint in terms of 
language, especially when we are in disagreement.

I look on the turmoil of the past few months on this list positively, 
because they have helped us mature. And in that spirit, I request you 
all to debate and discuss every thing threadbare, but in a manner that 
does not waylay us into discussing the niceties of how people should be 
speaking to each other. That distracts us from the matters that we 
really want to discuss.

So, for instance, if you want to be critical of the CPI(M), by all means 
be so, but if you do so in a manner that provokes others into saying 
that you are being personal in you attack, then we have to spend a lot 
of time and energy in discussing that. Eventually, your critique of the 
CPI(M) gets forgotten, and we end up trying to apportion blame between 
different speech acts, and wasting our time on yet another invocation of 
list protocols.

I hope everyone understands that this is not a call to censorship, 
rather, it is a demand that we all write respnsibly, so that the issues 
that we are all angry about and anguished by can be discussed in all 
seriousness.

It would be a terrible loss if a vibrant list with an evolving critical 
edge were to degenerate into a boxing ring where tired pugilists slug it 
out with each other to the dismay of bored spectators.

Everyone, please, always take a few deep breaths before you hit 'send'. 
Better still, let your mails sit in your drafts folder, read them once a 
few hours later, and then hit 'send'. Believe me, it will make 
everyone's life much better, and we will have more rewarding discussions 
on the list.

regards,

Shuddha