permaculture

["Loren Davidson" <listmail@lorendavidson.com>]

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date:  Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:00:28 -0500

>My vote is to leave the political discussion on the list where it belongs.
>I suggest that those who do not want it here may suffer from wounded 
>volitions.
>This is a serious, and common, wound that needs compassionate healing.
>I came back to the US from Vietnam in 1970 with this wound.  I'm 
>healing.  I'm grateful.

With all due respect, you're projecting. And my interpretation of your words 
is that you're assuming that there's something wrong with people who don't 
share your particular views on politics on this list, something that "needs 
healing." Personally, I find that perspective to be patronizing. If I 
bothered to work up some energy over it, I'd be offended too. But I have 
better ways to invest my emotional energy.

Offended people who feel like they're being talked down to aren't going to be 
very open to changing how they feel and act. If your purpose in posting 
political (or any) material is to influence people's opinions and actions, 
you might keep that in mind.

Yours is not the only valid perspective, on our international list. Please 
don't act as though it is.

Also, as a style issue, my eyes glaze over when I see a long post that covers 
*many* issues, some of them hot buttons, without really being organized or 
focused. I tune out and hit delete, and it ain't because I "need healing" 
either.

My perspective on *any* kind of discussion involving conflicting points of 
view is that if the participants don't understand that everyone's perspective 
is valid *at least for them*, the discussion is doomed to deteriorate into 
misunderstanding, resentment, and attempts to exercise "power over."

Give everyone else the same basic respect that you want for yourself.

Loren

--
Loren Davidson   listmail@lorendavidson.com
"Escape Artist" - http://www.lorendavidson.com
"Work is the curse of the drinking class" - WC Fields
--


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