Thanks, Johanna. And thanks too for the tip on a book that talks about an aspect of our culture that I find increasingly scary. Edith Wollin -----Original Message----- From: Johanna Rubba [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 11:36 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Blue cheese 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/