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it seems to me that there are at least two problems: one the strange design of the "anarchy" forum; the other the place/meaning of fratboy "humor". on the first, i have already said more or less what i have to say--because the nature and structure of the board is not collectively deliberated, there is no experiment in self-governance happening. what is happening is a simple inversion of how this space (say) operates. this combined with the emphasis on there being "no rules" makes the outcome--that folk do not appear to be operating with any sense of responsibility to anyone or anything--predictable.
so i think one problem lay in the idea behind the anarchy forum. i dont think there was a whole lot of thought behind it. sorry, but that's how it looks.
on the fratboy tendency: maybe this is a purely aesthetic thing on my part, or maybe it is a reflection of my mode of being as old fart, but i haven't found anything on that board (i have looked at it several times) funny or interesting at all.
i think in the end i value a sense of care in posts. this doesn't translate into always being nice to everyone--it is more a sense of there being some effort put into what is said and how it is said.
fratboy humor requires neither care nor thought.
there is nothing interesting in "blow me" or "why dont you just fuck off" or "that was fucking lame."
the results are like making fart noises with your hands.
i found that really hilarious when i was 14. now i dont.
but this is a problematic area because while i believe the above to be true, it is an aesthetic position. it refers to what i happen to find funny. i am not sure whether it is possible to go any further with this: except that within fratboy "humor" there are lots of juvenile, reactionary attitudes...a kind of narcissism lay behind the assumption that you can say just anything without giving it any particular thought, that whatever pops into your head is funny because it pops into your head.
i dont understand the interest in activating your inner fuckwit and taking it out to play.
i think that being funny in a written format requires some work.
anything worth doing requires work, and to prompt that work there has to be some sense of responsibility--this can be quite narrowly understood as applying to style (it doesnt matter so much how it deploys so long as it does)--and here the strange design of the anarchy forum converges with the low quality of much of the posting there.
what is also clear is that some of the folk whoa re active in anarchy seem to find its design to be liberating. maybe they can make something interesting out of it. for myself, though, i am not going to participate there until it morphs into something else. what is happening now is tedious and alienating.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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