[INDOLOGY] Clarification of list etiquette

[Koenraad Elst]

Dear listfolk,

Oh well. The coda about "condescending" in my last mail was not too
serious, as the preceding sentence ought to make clear. But I guess it was
no time for jest given the debating context and the sizable amounts of
hostility. Yes, hostility, for calling it "kindness" or "human
fellow-feeling" would now count as unacceptable satire. OK, point taken.

I should have known, for earlier in the mail I mentioned my own prediction,
based on past experiences, that attacks on me typically start a pattern
where they get completely ignored and accepted, even explicitly supported,
though obviously in violation of list rules. They are not at all weighed by
the criterion whether they are acceptable in a conference hall, face to
face; whereas anything I then say in defence is put under the microscope to
find some pretext for bending or changing list rules to oust or at any rate
silence me. And that is exactly what is playing out now.

When signing that petition in favour of freedom of speech, back in Zürich
in 2014, then particularly for Wendy Doniger, I couldn't help thinking:
many of these signatories are only in favour of free speech in the same way
as Hitler and Stalin were, viz. in favour of free speech for their own, and
to hell with it for the Other. I would very much like to be proven wrong
about that.



Best regards,


Dr. Koenraad Elst



On Sun, 30 Jun 2019, 09:52 Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY, <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Chris
>
> Certainly not. We should behave on a list like this as (I hope) we would
> when face to face with our colleagues in a conference room. Anyone
> indulging in name-calling or withering sarcasm, or trying to label
> colleagues as ’trespassing youngsters’, has already lost whatever argument
> they had. In my view we are all equal members on here. The fact that some
> of us have been knocking around longer than others does not necessarily
> make us wiser, as the Dhammapada points out.
>
> Valerie J Roebuck
> Manchester, UK
>
>
>
> On 30 Jun 2019, at 15:35, Christian P. Haskett via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Recently, a member posted that he has:
>
>
>
> “a right to talk
>
> "condescendingly" to trespassing youngsters.”
>
> Holding in abeyance the questions of ‘trespass’ and ‘youngsters,’ and
> entirely bracketing any questions about the rectitude of various positions
> in the debate, does the list and its committee affirm this right?
>
> Does the list committee affirm the right of this or any other scholar to
> conduct him or herself in such fashion, including belittling name-calling,
> withering sarcasm, and plainly disparaging ad hominem attacks—and a
> concomitant obligation on the part of myself and other youngsters to endure
> such treatment—by  allowing him or her continued membership without censure?
>
> I don't believe such a right exists, or should, but it’s not my place to
> decide.  On the other hand, rights and obligations are contingent and
> limited to the domains in which they are granted, and so I’ll quietly show
> myself out if that’s the way things are going to be.  That’s really not
> meant as a threat. I am an utterly inconsequential and passive participant
> in Indology.  However, I suspect that others feel the same way, and are not
> so free as I am to say so, and that perhaps the management of Indology
> would benefit from knowing that.
>
> best
> cpbh
> --
> Chris Haskett
> Assistant Professor, Religion
> Centre College
>
> स्वप्नोपमत्वाद्धर्मणां भवशान्त्योरकल्पना
> --स्फुटार्थ ४।६०
> Because they are dreamlike, the arising and ceasing of things are
> inconceivable.  Sphuṭārtha 4.60
>
>
>
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