Poison in the well

[stiiiiiiive]

I have a friend who spent a couple years in Lesotho with the Peace Corps. He related to me how on occasion someone in a village would get pissed off at others in the same village and decide to demonstrate this by killing a dog and throwing its dead body into the village's only well.

This forum has always stood out as a stellar example of how forums, and indeed the internet, can and should be, with none of the adolescent behavior so commonly found elsewhere on the internet. Admittedly, my continuing good opinion about this has been influenced greatly by formally ignoring one person whose over-the-top idiocy makes me wonder why he ever comes here in the first place and also doubt whether he is actually a musician or merely a tokolosi who takes delight in causing problems.

Seemingly we all come together here in the pursuit of issues relating to creating music. For me personally, this pursuit has at its core large elements of peace and love and worldwide fraternity, a la Mahavishnu's "Planetary Citizen." From time to time I have written vile, nasty, rude and ignorant responses to posts I've seen here (because I too am capable of being an idiot), but no one here has ever read them because I typed them out only to vent them from my system and then discarded them rather than post.

Take your hate and box it up and throw it away in some dark neglected space where it will bother no one. Spreading it about has the effect of poisoning the well from which we all wish to drink, and is also a serious disrespect to Johannes and crew who have created this space for all to enjoy.

Bless,

Pablo

[titanium]

Thank you

[stiiiiiiive]

I sometimes do the same: write some not-so-kind stuff, and feel discouraged in front of the potential sterile debate it will raise. So I delete... but feel better

[shark]

Well said Pablo. Unfortunately toxic people are out there. Best is to shut them out, they don't deserve our attention.

[AdamStage2]

. Unfortunately toxic people are out there. Best is to shut them out, they don't deserve our attention.

Amen to that.

I worked for a guy who was just that,Toxic,no matter what you did,it was never good enough,I never let it get me down like some of my co workers,I just saw it as a massive insight into the person he was,unhappy and angry at life,finding faults with everyone else to make himself feel better,I left that job many years ago,(nothing to do with my boss,Left for a better wage)

I learned 18 months ago from a former colleague that the guy had died from a heart attack,he was only 42,although he was severely overweight I do often think that his bitterness and anger and very short fuse perhaps brought that on a little too early,I do not wish anyone harm but sometimes feel life has a way of dealing with those who blight others for no reason,you never know when your time is up,so it's important to be nice to everyone even if the world may feel like it's crumbling around you.

I think people nowadays found it all too easy to hide behind a mask instead of dealing with the changes they require in their lives,you see the Internet forums full of those people who think there anonymity makes them feel important when in everyday reality they have no stature,but find some kind of power in being negative towards others,as they can do it without any fear to their safety(or at least they think so)the internet is a wonderful tool allowing us to connect to people all over the world but it also makes those individuals more isolated and only magnifies the egos of such people.

[sudkcoce]

There is a good proverb: don't fight with ignorant people, they will take you to their level and beat you there... Sometimes silence is golden.

[adamsen]

I agree, and another way to put it is:

Don't feed the Troll...

[Johannes]

Amen to that as well.
We from the forum crew aim at keeping this place as useful and enjoyable as we can so that everyone can benefit from that.
While of course everyone is free and encouraged to express his opinion, we try to keep moderation at the basic and fundamental level mostly referring to the Forum Rules which try to establish basic rules for discussions.

More generally, it could be desirable for everyone to follow Kant's categorical imperative "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law." But obviously we are all imperfect, but it's still a nice idea

Anyway, we try to do our best to maintain the character of the forums, but don't hesitate to contact anyone of us in case you feel you need to!

Thanks for all your support and understanding!

The team

[pablomastodon]

Now I know why I'll probably never read Kant.

[analogika]

"Don't do s*** you wouldn't want everybody else to do, too" is a much simpler way of putting it.

I never got the propensity for obscuring stuff that provokes real thought in clouds of pompous language that made it difficult to understand.

Precision can often be obtained much more simply. Not always, mind.

Same approach to music, btw:

If you can say it in three notes, 75 more don't add anything.

Unless they're beautiful. Then, it's poetry.