[Reader-list] what is to be done?

[Vivek Narayanan]

Dear Fatima,

Absolutely no personal vendetta intended-- and I find it hard to 
understand how you might read what I have written as a "personal 
vendetta".  I am merely addressing a situation (*without* advocating the 
removal of anyone from the list) where the list has lost dozens of 
readers who are not easily able to sort through for important 
announcements or discussions that they might actually want to 
participate in.  There have been some important recent events that 
members of the reader list have missed because they have not been able 
to sort through all the messages.

But I'd like to address a more important and revealing slip in your 
email.  Once again, you insist on suggesting/ inferring that a set of 
posters are residents of "slums" and from non-elite backgrounds based on 
their political views and incoherence.  Please refrain from making such 
assumptions.

Apart from this being very demeaning to a number of non-elites who don't 
hold forth with those simplistic views, who don't share those political 
views against muslims, etc, and who cannot afford to spam the list with 
up to five messages a day because of their lack of internet access-- 
apart from these kinds of insulting inferences and assumptions, you're 
also demonstrably wrong.  The members whose posts end up in my bullshit 
folder all post with such a great frequency that they must either have 
personal broadband access or, at the very least, be spending hundreds of 
rupees a day at cybercafes.  They are elites themselves.

And, moreover, apart from being wrong, you're playing right into the 
hands of these propagandists, who would like to claim that their 
anti-muslim and jingoistic views represent the views of "the people", 
"the masses", "the non-elite" and so on.  They would make the same 
claims as you that anyone who believes in equality or questions the 
violence of the nation-state or anyone interested in meaningful 
discussion beyond simplistic coercive and bullying language must be 
elite.  So do be careful before your metaphors actually begin to do some 
damage.

In fact, I'd rather not get into metaphors, since a metaphor by 
definition replaces its object, sometimes making the object harder to 
see with clarity, but just for the sake of underlining this, let me 
offer a counter-metaphor, even if, like all metaphors, it will distort, 
it will fail to represent the situation completely:

what if it is me who is walking on the street.  Yes indeed the street 
may be dirty, maybe it is strewn with shit and dust but let's say that 
the shit doesn't really bother me as much as it seems to bother you.  It 
really doesn't, even in real life-- if I happen to step in shit while on 
my way to work, well, I scrape my shoe against the pavement and I keep 
walking.  What if I am walking on the street then, enjoying its 
productive chaos and its instinctive tolerance for diversity, its 
camaraderie.  Let's say a limousine passes by with people who are *not* 
subaltern, people who are actually quite powerful, maybe they have 
access to the police and the security forces and the intelligence 
services.  Let's say that it is these people in the limousine who can 
talk so blithely and simplistically of kicking the muslims out and 
defending the nation, because they stand to benefit and because they 
would be shielded from the ensuing violence themselves.  Let's say that 
for some reason you want to try and get in that limousine with them 
because you believe that you can actually convince them, that they will 
change their minds simply on witnessing the goodness of your heart.  
Well, good for you.  For my part I already know well what the people in 
the limousine have to say, I have heard them out, and I know well that 
they have not a jot of respect for me, or you.  It's my right to stay 
out of that limousine, Fatima.  I already know what their views are, and 
I know what the costs of those views are.

Vivek

S.Fatima wrote:
> Dear Vivek
> Sorry to sound like this, but some of such mails from
> you reek of elitism. Redirecting some mails to the
> bullshit folder is one thing, but insulting them
> further goes to another level. Isn't that a personal
> vendetta that some on this list are requesting not to
> get into.
> Your calmness is akin to sitting in a limousine which
> is driving through the filthy roads and slums, which
> your darkened windows don't allow you to see.
>
> sf
>
> --- Vivek Narayanan <vivek at sarai.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> Strange...