Scylla Rhiadra

Argus Collingwood wrote: Are we hunting wabbits? :smileywink: Yes.

Dres . . . One user laughed.

I think I understand exactly what you mean, Quinn. There is so much noise in our lives. Some of it is "meaningful," but so much of it is not, and drowns out what is. The forums are also full of noise -- a lot of it is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Some of it is beautiful and creative. Perhaps "being creative" here sometimes means being silent in the way Dres jokingly suggests: hitting the cancel button, rather than merely contributing to the noise. Or maybe allowing a comment or an idea to germinate and cross-pollinate, rather than intervene and suppress.

I think that is probably true, Quinn. There are uncomfortable silences, and comfortable ones. And there are creative silences. The British playwright Harold Pinter was well-known for his silences -- the spaces between the words spoken by his characters. There's a book entitled The Poetics of Silence, in which James Hollis tells us that Pinter believed that "we live in the space between words." Is it possible to be creatively -- even lovingly -- "silent" in a text environment like this?

Sometimes a silence can be more eloquent than any words. And sometimes it is the death of love. Which is this, do you think?

Oh, there's always one in the crowd, isn't there? You'll bring the house down on us with that noise,

You don't LOOK like a noisy cat. How can you be so noisy?????

CHRIS!!!!! Now a little quieter, please!!!

Cliques and cults are a terrible thing. And they're usually pretty noisy too, with drums and tambourines and things. They should be silenced. Now, sssssssshhhhhhh!

Actually, that's rather therapeutic. :matte-motes-asleep-2:

I'd prefer it were, yes. Now SSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

But a very understated one.

Actually, it's a very clever metaphor for something.

I'd explain . . . . . . but it would require too much noise.

Ouch!! :matte-motes-frown:

Thank you.:matte-motes-asleep-2:

Yes, that means YOU too!!!

SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

very quiet now, please.

everyone to be very

I want

Ok.

What about something as simple as a "Like" button, as just about every other forum in the world has? It needn't be tied into "ranks" at all, and so wouldn't be gamed. It would just be a way to show appreciation for a post that one agreed with or thought particularly worthwhile. But I don't suppose Lithium has the capacity for that.

Celestiall Nightfire wrote: I think it behooves each of us to judge others as individuals, and not jump to conclusions based upon politics, religion, and nationality. The qualities of good and evil span the globe, and all groups contain people that fall within those two realms, and many that straddle the fence between. QFT

Celestiall Nightfire wrote: Yes. Sadly, acts of killing are routinely perpetrated by those who embrace religion. (I'm an atheist and a libertarian...and self- identify as such. Strangely, people routinely condemn atheists and libertarians although neither group is known for acts of violence) Well, if Prok were here . . . (if you say his name three times, does he appear?) . . . he would undoubtedly remind us all that the Soviets, and all manner of Communists, were atheists, but reasonably handy at the employment of terror too. And he'd be right. I think that there can be a political or ideological "fundamentalism" too, which is every bit as dangerous.