h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*walks in and settles on the sofa*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Good to be back.

Courtesy

*settles into well worn easy chair with some *

Wanders in

Is about to land on the sofa next to Courtesy when he notices that the space is already taken by amy

So moves to a chair and then promptly dozes off from the effects of too many shift changes.

*wanders in and joins Sporky in admiring the new woodwork*

*enters and gets comfy in a chair*

This place looks good as new! Lovely fresh smell too - is that pot pourri in that dish?

*Settles onto a sofa with tea and pastry and looks around at everyone*


We've had some very destructive things happen here, and we've been made very angry, and the results have been unhappy.

While we are full of blame for the cause, we also have to look at what we have become and how we reacted, and see if we can't forestall future occurrences and organise the standards of the atelier in advance. These are my thoughts:

In the first place, we can NOT react to trolling and flames any longer. If, for example, the Village Idiot were to run in here nude, caper about in front of us and shout obscenities, the only proper response is to ignore the poor thing. Remonstrances should be taken to the personal space of the offender. Otherwise, by responding, we only provide the offender with justification to continue.

Second, we must always give newcomers the benefit of the doubt, however strange their initial arrival. We know by now that not everyone reads a forum page before dropping by, so the best thing is to direct the newcomer to A304354 .

Thirdly, we have all discovered that there are some researchers beyond these walls who do not regard the salon fondly. We have encountered accusations that we are a clique and that we gang up on people we don't like. I hope that points One and Two will go some way toward dispelling this notion, but additionally, I ask that we desist from gossiping about other researchers within the salon. We all do it, and we have all been vituperative, myself not least. However justified any of us feel, we have to admit that if this place is to be a model of good manners then it is not the place for rebarbative comment.

Fourthly, well this relates to thirdly. Some of you might see that I have taken my own name off the sign. I am still the hostess/creator and I'm setting the rules, but I'm hoping that this little token will also help to undercut the accusation of cliquishness. I shall do less talking about myself here. I've regarded the atelier in some ways as my own personal space, but I'm going to make more use of my journal in future for that sort of thing.

Fifthly, I would like to see more substantive discussion here; that's why the atelier was founded in the first place, to get away from contentlessness. We still role-play and I'm not forbidding personal news by any means, but I did feel that, by 64X, we were drowning in minutiae. The backlog was out of hand, and I for one had no time to do anything else but keep track of just this one forum.


What do the rest of you feel?

// Spelugx comes in from the direction of the woods, wrapped up warmly, and sniffing intermittently, and takes a seat on a sofa

Lil, I think that your thoughs regarding future cases of trolling and abuse are well warranted.

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly.

Hi Spelugx Good to see you here again.

So do we have a topic of conversation to procastinate and deliberate over to set the chunk of metamorphic lump of morraine decending down the gradient.

Well, right now we're discussing a more explicit code of conduct, but I was also wondering whether anyone was interested in discussing theories of emotions. I beieve it's particularly relevant, given what we've just been through, to have a look at destructive emotions and the toxicity and contagion of anger.

Professor Paul Ekman says we are hardwired for emotions, that they arise in us in a primal manner, but that we learn, in the context of our culture, how to manage them. Some cultures are highly managed, like Japan, and some, like the the US, are more free in expression. Some emotions, like joy, are more acceptable than others, like anger.

Ekman comes close to the Buddhist model when he says that management of emotions, deciding what we allow to show, depends on our ~attentiveness~ to what's going on within. So, while we may not be able to stifle that first angry impulse, we learn to look at our own behaviour and understand what's pushing our buttons, and modify the primitive impulse.

Anger is related to violence. As Ekman says, anger controls, anger retaliates, and anger punishes. It's also extremely contagious. I think it's interesting that West and East both agree, anger is also a function of attachment, or clinging to a delusion.

For example, a man beats his wife beause she refuses to conform to his illusion of submissiveness and adoration, both of which he needs to see in her in order to blster his self-esteem.

But I've said enough to introduce a topic.

*entering from the kitchen, with a fresh tray of mboutgases in her hands*

Matina asked that I bring this out. I think she just wanted me out of the kitchen.

Lil, good points. Although I don't know how we're really going to stop the personal stuff from coming through, simply because we all feel very comfortable here.

*takes some mboutgases and a cup of and heads toward the computers*

Gotta present Hobsbawm today, so I'd best go write it up.

And blster could be read as either 'bolster' or 'bluster'.

*thinking about emotions- I'll come up with something to say sooner or later*

MR- by Hobsbawn, I presume you mean Eric? I'm sure I've read one of his books, but I can't remember which, or even whether it was history or politics, but I know the name.

*** quietly occupies a quiet corner, in hand, interested and determined not to evidence in any way that one village missing its idiot ***

I posted a suggestion that we discuss Lil's book on Buddhism, but I got my conversations muddled and posted in the Cafe in error

*returns from computers*

Yes, Egon. Eric Hobsbawm. And what you probably read is history, but he likes a good dose of politics thrown in. He was perhaps, before EP Thompson, the best known Marxist historian, and he wrote a great deal on economic history. Not exactly my favorite thing, but oh, well. I've got to make a good show of it for the newbies....

Yuck.

Seth, welcome!

I've had a look round amazon at his books, and I realise that, although I think I've read one of his books about the early part of the 20th century, it was the fact that he wrote the introduction for the edition of "The Communist manifesto" that i own, which was why I thought of him.

*wanders in and takes an empty seat*

Well, I am happy to listen in on the conversations, Lil, and join in where I can