moderation policy

[Guest guest]

Dear Mani,

Here are my views on the above subject.

(1) I think the biggest attraction of the "bhakti-list" is that it is

"COMPLETELY FREE". It is very rare in the world to find a SriVaishnava

forum where views and ideas, learned and unlearned, scholarly and

pedestrian, informed and misguided all get FREELY shared and discussed

about. It is a forum where none has to be inhibited in speaking out his

mind. In the process one learns many lessons --- sometimes painful ones

too!

 

For God's sake keep the character of "bhakti-list" as unfettered and

vibrant as it is today.

 

A fortnight ago I was in London on official business. My place of work was

in Park Street in the Mayfair area. I took time off to stroll down Marble

Arch and into Hyde Park to visit Speaker's Corner. I heard out a common

speaker there -- some lower-level clerk working in a British Bank -- atop a

soap-box surrounded by about a score of people. He was savaging his

employer and believe me it was a marvellous treat listening to his

vitriolic eloquence. If ever an address could be delivered with grace as

much as scalding venom it was surely his! Listeners, including me, were

spell-bound!

 

Hyde Park is a hoary institution the British have cherished across

centuries! They realize it has its uses for ordinary people at large who

have SOMETHING to say and yet have NO PLACE on earth to voice it!

 

I am not arguing that the "bhakti-list" should be turned into the

cyber-version of "Hyde Park of SriVaishnavism". I am saying that an an

institution which serves as a free-and-unfettered clearing-house of

ideas/opinions for present-day ordinary SriVaishnavas like ourselves is

very rare indeed and hence needs to be preserved in its original form.

 

(2) I have been a member of this group for about 12 months in all now. I

have had my share of bouquets and brickbats thrown at me for my views and

opinions.(Somebody once even threatened me with that ultimate American

weapon of intimidation and bully --- a lawyer's notice!) But never have I

had anything offensive or obnoxious hurled at me. I don't think I have done

so either.

 

(3) In all cases on the list in the past where there were some ideological

or doctrinal differences amongst members, I felt far more offence was TAKEN

than ever GIVEN! People read affront and abuse where there was none

intended! People needlessly imagined insults at the drop of a hat! People

presumed sacrilege and blasphemy where there was only genuine curiosity and

healthy inquiry!

 

(4) I think the idea of a "moderating committee of elderly or senior

members" is wholly unnecessary. It militates against the very spirit, the

very essence of this list! I for one would be extremely disappointed with

such a move.

 

(5) By the way, when I was living in Bahrain the Arabs there used to have a

joke going amongst them on "committees": they used to have a wonderful

definition for their favourite animal, the camel; they used to say proudly

that the camel too is actually a race-horse --- only that it came to be

designed by a committee of god's angels!

 

Regards,

sudarshan