Posted by 838 on March 6, 2006, at 5:05:04
In reply to Re: Alex's block, posted by Dr. Bob on March 6, 2006, at 3:17:05
> > Should the blocked poster not take it personally that they were blocked...
> > While other people are considered entitled in taking what the poster said personally...
> > Where is the consistency here?
> One way to look at it is in terms of roles. Mine is to administrate, while that of posters is to support.Support and education. I thought education came into it too. And my variety of education... Is based on critique.
So to be charitable... Blocks aren't personal they are just admin actions.
But then to be charitable... Maybe my post wasn't supportive, but maybe it was more in the spirit of education. I don't think I was saying that the policy WAS hypocritical (in the sense of my trying to educate people that that was the case). It was more about 'lets have a think about whether there is a relevant difference' (aka educate me please). To get other people thinking. To maybe learn something new.
I found a link before and I was trying to find it again. T Nagel (on some accounts the best moral philosopher in the world - an American currently employed at NYU) was talking about one of his books. In his book he critiqued American foreign policy. He was going to publish it and then... September 11. He said in the interview that he held off publishing it for a year because the tendancy was to take criticism of American foreign policy personally. Like it was condoning September 11 or something. And he worried about offending people and getting them off side so they would be more likely to write him off as a complete crank. He has some fairly radical views that there is no ownership pre-taxation and that redistributive justice is a fairer system (I think it is okay to say that). I guess my point is that... I'm not used to people taking critique of government policy personally (even when I refer to the government shorthand as 'peoples'). It is alien to my way of thinking. That people are so emotionally involved like that. I mean... I appreciate that it is like that in some countries in the world... And I'd heard that Americans tended to be very nationalistic... But I didn't appreciate things were quite that way.
> > And if there is reason either way...
> > Then how do you decide whether to block or not?
> I try to use my best judgment.
Yeah. In my better moments I know you do.
I'm sorry about doubting that...I still think I need to leave politics alone. I don't think I've got my head around the relevant cognitive gymnastics. And... I'm not so sure I want to. I don't know. But to be fair how many times have I said that? Maybe it is more about... Stopping after getting a warning on the thread.
I'm sorry.
Thanks for talking this through.
poster:838
thread:607029
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20060225/msgs/616519.html