[Vision2020] A Weatherman Indeed

[Bill London]

Rose--
A very hearty welcome back to you...I am glad to read your passionate prose on V2020 again....
Regarding your post (below) about our resident troll (Mr./Ms. No Weatherman), I think the solution is much more obvious than attempting to moderate or renovate V2020.  Let's just ignore the troll.  No responses to his/her incendiary and mean mud-bombs.
If you feel like responding, don't.  Just count to ten and then send in a post on a different topic.  Let's rebuild the conversation.
Thanks BL
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rosemary 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 8:39 AM
  Subject: [Vision2020] A Weatherman Indeed


  Visionaries:

  The Weathermen aka The Weather Underground was a collection of mostly white, mostly privileged, underemployed, arguably over-educated, little brats who threw  violent and disruptive tantrums to emphasize their outrage at the imperialistic and militaristic actions of the federal government.  There was something singularly galling (not to mention criminal) about the post-adolescent jackasses who so arrogantly declared war on America, blew up some buildings (and a couple of their own members) and eventually (predictably) settled into the comfortable, upper middle-class lives they claimed to disdain.  

  Now Vision 2020 has a Weatherman doppelgänge of its very own - self important, parochially brainwashed, rude as only the self-entitled can be, disruptive,  threatening, and unquestionably a jackass.  Bill Ayers apparently offered the justification for the extraordinarily intrusive behavior of No Weatherman while concurrently serving as a role model. 

  For all Ayers'  faults - and they are numerous - Bill Ayers appears to live - at least at this point - in the real world. Trolls like No Weatherman inhabit the land of Magical Thinking - where their coercive and obsessive monopolization of conversation is a futile attempt to fill the chasm that marks the boundary between maturity and immaturity, gravitas and a pathetically prolonged adolescence, mental health and emotional fragility, a sense of being grounded in the community and the wild flaying of an untethered ego.  Are his pompous pronouncements irritating as hell? You betcha.  Are his piddling pretensions  of  educating 2020 readers insulting and limited in intellectual scope?  You betcha.  He is a sad and sorry piece of work. You definitely betcha.

  No Weatherman's conversational style is reminiscent of a shrieking child in the candy aisle demanding (and getting) a bag of Skittles to shut him up.  One can't help noticing the little monster and drawing some pretty plain conclusions about the adults in charge of him.  Similarly, perhaps it is time to revisit the goals and ground rules of V2020. If the intention of the founders was to encourage a free flowing, un-moderated community conversation it appears to be a failed strategy, or perhaps it succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.  However, when an anonymous bully is allowed, indeed encouraged  because of the lack of enforced guidelines - to dominate the conversation and threaten other posters the antithesis of communication has been achieved.  No pragmatist is surprised when a utopian concept is hijacked. Perhaps it's time for a realistic reappraisal of what does or does not contribute to a successful community chat group.  And, it is to be hoped, we will soon enjoy the implementation of a structure  that actually invites diverse and respectful participation.

  Rose Huskey

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   



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