THeres that Preacher again.
Were people preaching when they complained about Jurriaan posting too frequently to pen-l? This is an open and democratic forum. People have the right to make comments about the quality and quantity of posts to pen-l, as they would on marxmail or lbo-talk. Speaking of Jurriaan, I find that his posts are consistently informative and substantive. I only wish that average post to pen-l had something half as substantive as Jurriaan's. He organizes his thoughts, writes compellingly and makes sure to back up his arguments with facts.
I honestly think that people who make their living as journalists and economists view listservs as a kind of upscale chat-room. Since their writing is something that they make their living by, they perhaps feel like they are getting ripped off if they don't get paid for writing a five hundred word post to a listserv that might actually amount to something. That is really too bad. The Internet is as revolutionary a medium as the printing press of the Reformation was. Time to get used to that.
Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
