[Reader-list] Future of the Reader-List

[Lawrence Liang]

Dear All


I have been following the debates on the direction that the reader-list
should take, given the nasty turn that come of the conversations have taken.
I understand the difficult position that the moderator has been put in, with
competing demands for bans, unsubscribing and having to balance this with a
commitment to building an open space for conversation.

This is a commitment that we should not take lightly. We all live in
conditions in which conversations are increasingly becoming the collateral
damage of a highly polarized, and it is no small effort to build a space in
which such conversations would even be possible. The nature of social
interaction in offline spaces is such that you are rarely likely to meet
people who are unlike yourself, which is why disagreement on the list
remains vital.

But I just wanted to point out a few of my own concerns. In the course of
disagreeing with ideas and people, there have been serious accusations that
have been made and I am not entirely sure whether people making these
accusations are aware of the possible impact that they could have. When you
are living in troubled times, the relationship between rumour, speculation
and the law can have extremely adverse impacts on the person making the
accusation, as well as the people subject to these accusations. A false
rumour could have someone arrested, or be the subject of surveillance and
police enquiry, and the person making accusations could suddenly find
himself/ herself in the middle of an unwanted criminal defamation case. In
either case, the consequences of 'mere words' on the life and freedom of
people is very serious, and I would urge people to take responsibility for
their words, and their legal consequences, whether intended or not.

If there are accusations to be made, there are a number of fora including
the mainstream press, and people have generally been a little more cautious
in the mainstream press about making accusations without substantiation.
This perhaps has to do with a longer history of press regulation which makes
the consequences a little more real than it is in cyberpsace. The real
tragedy would be that we convert an online space into a space similar to
mainstream media where conversations are no longer really possible. The
point is not even whether accusations are substantiated or not, the fact of
the matter is that given the fragile nature of identity on the internet, it
is pointless to use a mailing list as a space in which accusations with real
life impacts are made.

Neither is it about some holy cow called freedom of speech and expression.
The Indian constitution guarantees us all of that and more, but at the same
time it does not guarantee us a right to civility, that is something that we
constitute for ourselves in our modes of speech and behavior.

If I were the subject of rumours and speculation, I would just leave out of
a concern for my safety, but if everyone leaves, then we have precious few
to even disagree with.

I want to end with the last stanzas of a beautiful poem by Angel Gonzalez
which outlines an inventory of places propitious for love

To where does one escape, then?
Everywhere squinting eyes,
tortured corneas,
implacable pupils,
reticent retinas, are vigilant, suspicious, threatening.
Perhaps one has the option of going it alone,
of emptying the soul of tenderness
and filling it with boredom and indifference,
in this hostile time, propitious for hatred.


Lawrence