[Buddha-l] As Swami goes, so goes the nation? (Dan Lusthaus and Richard P. Hayes)

[Mitchell Ginsberg]

From: Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu>
<snips> E-mail is no different from any form of communication that relies on visible symbols for spoken words. There is nothing about an e-mail message that makes it different from a line of Horace. Well, I take that back. There's a big difference. People still read e-mails. Most people don't know who Horace is. Isn't that the name of the Jewish butcher down the street? Dr Peavler informs me that Willie Nelson once lamented "I have outlived my dick." Our fate is even worse. We have outlived civilization. And now we all require imbecilic cues to tell us when to laugh and when to cry. 
 
Hello Richard and all, 

What you write is brilliant. 

I take it that for some the preceding sentence will not be vague or ambiguous about its intent. For most, it might be toss-up about whether this is sarcastic or earnest admiration. 

Actually, it's just an example to illustrate the point here. Btw, whether every line of Horace taken in isolation would be unambiguous, not open to more than one interpretation or not, is not what I was talking about. The question I was raising was not about Horace but about the exchanges here on the group, in email formatting in a discussion group; where the rules of the game are quite different from what informed Horace's style.  

I do agree that my characterization of wit and "sardony" and such as belonging only to NE USA (the one example I gave, since I grew up there and not in NM or NL, alas for the latter, perhaps) is simplistic, and readily acknowledge that some people in the NE USA have no great wit and are not sarcastic, and that others elsewhere are, &c. 

My point, to get back to the point, putting aside the specific issue of emoticons pro or con, was that I could not tell from your exchanges with Dan if it was all just playful repartee or if there was some sort of strong irritation you have against one another. 

In this case (wherever I fit on the brilliant to imbecil scale), I really could not figure it out or sense it out. I just expressed the question, with the idea that maybe there would be a response that would help clarify my understanding (or lead to more respect being manifested?). 

Not wanting to rain on your parade if it's a parade. 

Just to give some feedback, at times I find it distracts from the focus on the topics being addressed, and at other times (when I'm reading it at playful), it is a pleasant amusement along the way. At other times, it seems nasty. 

If the exchanges were private between you and Dan, then that would be one thing. But they are occurring in this (somewhat) public forum, which is quite a different context. It strikes me as significant or important in some of your exchanges (being what stands out most prominently and memorably at times), which leads me to mention it and ask about it. 

Best wishes, 
Mitchell 

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