[Reader-list] Free Speech vs Voluminous Speech

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

I'll add another aspect to Mahmood's point.

The issue is not about free speech per se (even though I appreciate
Lawrence's principled position and Shuddhabrata's tireless efforts at
engaging in debates, with only a few glimpses of losing his cool), but
about how that speech is drowning out any usefulness/functionality of
this mailing list itself.

When people write about a topic I disagree with, I am of course free
to ignore it. But the problem is that a certain few topics have now
come to dominate the entire volume of the mailing list. Thus one
thread will generate 50+ replies, which will flood out everybody else
on the mailing list. This 50+ exchange will not be between 20+
individuals, but rather 4-5 determined individuals. When I first
joined Sarai there was a multitude of voices on various topics. Some
were about South Asia, some were about speech, transvestites, art
openings, art grants, cyberspace, technology, etc etc. These days
there is only one topic, and it just refuses to end. Does that mean
people have stopped being interested in the other topics? I would
argue that majority of people have STOPPED reading reader-list. I open
my mailbox and find 5-6 digest versions emails, but when I open them
it is the same 5-6 names, repeating the same arguments, and absolutely
no sign of actually engaging in a debate or conversation. So I scan
reader-list headlines in 10 seconds or less and rapid-fire delete. I
suspect lot of others do the same. A once vibrant, useful, interesting
mailing list has turned into a giant spam folder wormhole.


From: "mahmood farooqui" <mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com>

Responding tolawrence' heartfelt anguish--

We must have conversations with people who are unlike us, but not in this
fashion and not like this. Where I am I find barely five minutes to search
through the reader list and since a lot of that is taken up by hackneyed
protests, peurile protestations and cliched and false righteousness by
people who claim to speak in the name of Hindus generally and kashmiri
pandits more specifically, I am seriously considering unsubscribing from the
list.

If there are any who wish to engage with determined filibusterers then they
can note down their personal emails and continue to pour facts on kashmir
and muslims and secularism till the cows come home or are slaughtered.

Please do not present me this in the name of engagement and openness.

Thank god I am not a liberal.