[Reader-list] what is to be done?
Ravi Agarwal
ravig64 at gmail.com
Thu Jan 24 09:01:51 IST 2008
Hi Aarti
Many thanks for your mail. I think that we need to talk about many
other things which people like me on the reader list are interested
in. I am sure the discussion about the communal nature of our nation
state is a very important one, but this is as important as are other
key issues confronting us today, like issues of poverty, environment,
changing urban landscapes, the discussions on the arts, and impacts
of new globalisations etc, from my perspective for example, and there
could be many others.
I feel that if one discussion becomes very dominant, then others feel
cowed down and do not post. Maybe the moderator can do this, trigger
of discussions other than this as well. What do you think?
Or I may be wrong and then most on the reader list are only interested
in one topic, in which case I rest my case, since it is based on past
experience with the list and the variety of topics it held.
best and good luck
ravi agarwal
On Jan 22, 2008, at 12:54 PM, Aarti Sethi wrote:
Dear all,
It is becoming more and more difficult to read the writing on the
reader-list. From misogyny, the likes of which I do not recall ever
seeing
before, to threats of physical violence against women's bodies, to
right-wing Hindu vitriol, what is going on? It is actually now painful
to
have to see 37 responses on a thread which deserves not even one,
because
people are valiantly trying to talk rationally, reason with, respond to
people who should just be told to shut up. I know its very hard to keep
quite and let things go, especially when we have exemplars like
chanchal and
vedavati on this list. But we are all just getting fatigued now with
this
relentless barrage of invective and hate that the list is constantly
subjected to.
So now I am asking for solutions. What is to be done?, as Lenin asked
many
years ago. What is to be done to save the reader-list? Can we have a
discussion on this? Clearly responding to them in any rational fashion
is
not a solution. And I frankly have no interest or hope that anything
any of
us can say will make any difference. This is not about me refusing to
have a
conversation, because the fact is, they do not want to have a
conversation
at all. And i think that is quite clear from the writing on the list
in the
past two weeks.
This is a request to to please stop engaging with them. Lets ignore
them,
lets not respond to them, lets please just mark all their mails so
they go
into our collective trash folders, lets talk about other things,
anything.
They can then keep talking to each other about the wonderful Hindu
nation
they will build ad nauseum. But we dont have to listen to this. And of
course they will claim this as a victory etc etc. How we cant respond to
them, how we have nothing to say to their brilliant argumentation. I can
already predict the responses to this mail. But I have no trouble saying
that they are right. I am limited by my own linguistic incapacity to
respond
to writing which is so poisonous.
And a final qualification about my use of "us" and "them" and any
questions
regarding othering, insularity, assumption of moral superiority etc
etc. I
can unabashedly say that I have absolutely no problems creating this
binary
divide. I have no issues saying that these are people I want to have
nothing
to do with, as far as I am concerned they are unethical and violent
and I
dont see why they should have any purchase on my time at all. There
are far
more interesting things being said and there are interesting people
saying
them who I would much rather read, than the reams and reams of boring
hateful drivel that constantly issue from the likes of chanchal..
If anyone else has any other ideas please lets hear them. And if
anyone has
forgotten how to make filters so you can trash the trash, here is a
link to
Vivek's very instructive mail on the matter:
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011005.html
best
Aarti
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