In reply to Mr. Reis, Rebecca Wheeler and others who have responded to
Mr. Reis's 'blue cheese' post -- it's become clear to me that Mr. Reis's
intent isn't to provoke healthy, respectful debate among scholars and
professionals, but is merely to provoke. We don't have the person-power
to moderate the list (unless someone wants to volunteer). And I think we
can do the moderating ourselves by responding appropriately to
provocation. Since a provocateur usually revels in getting someone's
dander up, and posts in the hope of eliciting response, perhaps the best
response is no response; delete 'scaramouche' postings unread, or read
them and deprive Mr. Reis of a response.

Some people (maybe including Mr. Reis himself) may think he is posting
with the intent of persuading people to his point of view, but there are
certainly more effective ways to persuade than insulting your audience.
And I haven't seen any signs that Mr. Reis is open to changing his mind
under the influence of others' postings. I recommend to anyone the book
'The Argument Culture' by Deborah Tannen. It's a terrific eye-opener on
how public debate in America is degenerating to the rhetorical
equivalent of schoolyard fisiticuffs. Debate opponents have no intention
of persuading or being persuaded; everyone is on a soap box spewing as
much vitriol as they can muster. No one dare admit that the opponenet
may actually have a point. That might cause them to be perceived to have
'lost' the debate, and the only point is winning, being right, coming
out 'on top'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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