[Peace-discuss] driving away members

[C. G. Estabrook]

Ricky--

Laura Nader's comments, which I quoted in a post to Al, and you reject in
(a) below, seem to me quite appropriate for an organization like ours. It
also seems to me that you summarize them in (b) below, but the burden of
(c) is to call for something like the "coercive harmony" -- enforced by
social pressure and group disapproval in a voluntary organization -- that
she condemns.  --CGE


On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

> (a) ... before we start quoting famous people who haven't been party
> to these discussions about "harmony" or some such nonsense ...

> (b) ... We disagree, and that must always be acceptable and
> encouraged.  Nobody should be ashamed to express their opinion,
> particularly a new person.  It's not healthy to agree all the time,
> and sometimes arguments become heated.

> (c) ... I do think that if we smirk and snicker while others are
> speaking, or insult them, or ignore their arguments while repeating
> our own previous comments, we shouldn't be surprised at all if they
> call us on it.  Also, if we are serious about organizing for a
> "another world" we need to show some restraint, particularly when a
> new person has input, when white people are speaking to people of
> color, men speaking to women, non-immigrants speaking to immigrants,
> and so on.  Relatively privileged people have a tendency to be rather
> thin-skinned on the subject, but the reality is that groups that do
> otherwise have a strong tendency to homogeneity...