I am not here to slight, diminish, or otherwise disparage MB's new role as playground monitor. I've been one who throws some pretty loaded grenades myself, although few people seem to notice that I'm solely a reactionary flamethrower. I don't have the courage to throw a first punch, but I'll destroy myself to earn the chance to throw the last one.
Some of you know that I got myself excommunicated from Street Prophets for their declaration of civility - so I've seen how "rules" work when they are in place elsewhere.
But what I want to ask you is what any of this does about our larger problem - what people write is a measure of what they think and feel. The reason freedom of expression/speech/religion gets so much of our attention is precisely because we believe in the human spirit, or soul, or whatever word you choose to describe the footprints we leave in the Earth during our walk on it.
So a blog became uncivil, and now rules are in place to filter out the unmanageable. I agree a positive step in regaining intellectual and social decorum has been achieved.
But how many of you ponder where the loose cannons go when they are sent packing?
I'm not going go any farther than this.
A lot of my diaries have been written in the meta framework of "I'd like you to think about this idea" - and I've been accused of declaring somehow that I know what people should or should not say (see my thoughts on GBCW and suicide).
I dont' have any pretense that anyone knows or cares or would ever listen to what I say. I've largely given up.
But what I do want to ask is, when any gathering of people starts to filter out who belongs and who doesn't belong, there remains the reality that although they aren't here, they are somewhere. And "out of sight, out of mind" works for a lot of people - I'll say most of humanity. We tend to be more comfortable if we just displace the things that make us uncomfortable.
So I will let you compile your own list, either in your mind in days to come if you choose to consider my words - or here on the screen if you choose - of how many people you can think of who became famouse (infamous) because one group of people pushed them aside only for them to pop up later somewhere else for all the wrong reasons.
I'm not establishing cause-effect.
I'm not establishing blame.
I'm just asking you to ponder all the times in your personal life, and how many times in the course of the history you're familiar with, that a person who has caused trouble and been pushed aside have come back to remind you that even though they are no longer in your midst, in your face, "on your radar", or on your list of things to deal with that day, they're still somewhere...
That's the problem I see with pie fights that lead to grenade wars that lead to who knows what else.
I made one comment that I've self-policed myself lately - meaning i just stay home. I don't participate like I used to, because even though my neighbor thinks everyone at DailyKos drinks Kool-Aid as if Markos was Jim Jones himself and we're all blindly monolithic and obediant to Savior Obama - we know that things get ugly here too.
And that's a sign, to me.
It's not just R vs. D; the irony that this country still has the hubris to include the name "United" right there as the first word in the name we give ourselves "United States of America" is getting embarassing.
So we splinter down from Left vs. Right; religious vs secular/, Rich vs Poor, White vs Black and all the other colors against every color but themselves - hey, we even invent sports teams to give otherwise socio-politically aligned people a reason to hate one another.
And where are we going with it?
The people that we ban - that we silence - that we mock for their GBCW diaries ---- where do they go?
And why don't we care?
Do we really believe that out of sight really means they've simply evaporated from the universe never to be a factor in our future again?
The decorum here is a problem, as it is everywhere.
But our real problem, whether it's at Daily Kos, the Democratic party, The Tea Party, or if you have the courage to ponder the big ones - the country as the whole and the planet at large -
...do we even care if we still get along?
And if not, what's your plan for when the first guy who you aren't interested in talking to moves on to the next idea he comes up with to get your attention again?
It's a meta diary, not a threat or a suggestion. It's just the stuff, as George Carlin used to say, that I think about when I'm home alone and the power is off.
The thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.
Does anyone else think about it?