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>
>
Nothing else was explicitly stated, but there was every hope that any
new people who came on
>
board would be interested in the same sorts of things as the 10 of us:
socialism, religion and
>
society, the peace movement, environmentalism, literature/music/art,
family relationships and
>
child rearing, democracy and citizenship etc. etc. And for the first year
or so, the hope was
>
fulfilled. Even when people had major differences in attitudes to a par-
ticular issue, we had enough
>
of a shared world view to take the differences in our stride. For exam-
ple, a commitment to “free
>
university education for all citizens” was given a higher priority than
“staff-student dating policies”.
>
But as time went on, the original group commitments were over-
whelmed by new people coming
>
in, new people who did not know of the original hopes for the group
and would not have shared
>
theminanycase.Nowinsteadof50people,aboutwhomIcaregreatly,
there are 350 people, most
>
of whom I care not one whit about. People are still polite, still not
accepting of anti Semitism and
>
racism; but they are younger, more trivial, more right wing, less
thoughtful, less academically
>
rigorous.
>
Istillgotothechanneleachday,tokeepintouchasitwere.Butifthere
were important issues to
>
discuss, they would now be taken to a limited email group rather than
to an open on-line
>
discussion
>
>
Regretfully
>
H.
~
I also see the private email groups forming out of the larger groups, and
for much the same reason. There are simply some things that, for one
reason or another, one doesn't want to put out in front of the whole
group, whether it be an important issue that one wants to be treated as
such, or a private matter.
