Oh dear Belly, you're serious about this. And here I thought you were encouraging us (egging us on, spurring us forwards) to be flippant and frivolous, feckless (the opposite of fecker?) and fancy-free. Ah well... let's be serious then.
You cannot legislate for love (my own made-up cliche). In addition, respect can be commanded, but not demanded (this was one of my mother's favourites). This place may represent the tragedy of the commons (from philosophy, political theory and game theory).
In short (imagine me, here, standing like Corporal Trim in front of the fireplace, leg out at just the angle required to create the perfect balance between forcefulness, to attract the audience's attention, and grace, so as not to be impolite, recounting the story of Dr Slop's downfall to Uncle Toby and Walter Shandy), this is a free space. We do (I sincerely believe) respect the community spirit or culture that obtains here. And yes, some of us have our hobby-horses. Religion makes me see red. YARTs do it for others. Intolerance for others, and acronyms for a fourth group. What I like about this place, however, is that in general we do not take these things personally, or make them personal. We do usually take them seriously, though.
I have also noticed that, unlike the alleged choruses of approval or disapproval implied by silence, that a long surreal digression on an initially serious thread topic can often mean that the posters wish to acknowledge the existence of the thread, but cannot express a serious opinion for fear of causing offence - the jesting is a way of distracting attention, of defusing the bomb, of deflating tension.
Or maybe I'm just talking through a cocked hat.
What do you think? (Come one, come all - all opinions available here. Ladeeez and gennulmen, I offer you my opinions. I know that designer opinions cost money - well, take a sniff of these! Can you tell the difference? No! Do they look any different? No! They are identical but I got them off a job lot - fell off the back of a truck, y'see. And I'm not taking those fancy two thousand percent margins that your posh shops are. So I'm offering you these opinions at, what's that you say? 30 quid? No. No, indeed ladeez and gennulmen - its' not 30 quid, it's not twenty quid. Ten? Lower. Five? You can't believe it can you? It's not even a quid, my friends. Yes gather round. I'm selling these opinions, not for a quid apiece, not even two for a pahnd, not even five for. Yeee-e-e-e-sss. Ladeez and gennulmen, I'm giving you these opinions for FREE. Yup. Thass right - step up young gennulmen, collect these free opinions. It's Mothering Sunday soon - why not wrap up a nice "Condescension" for your mam. Or how would your young lady - I can see you've got your eyes on each other, you can't fool me - like a little bi' of "Ethical trading values" to set off that lavvly brooch she's wearing? And what about you, young sir - every man this season is wearing an original "Endemic racism" opinion - sure you don't want one...? {GBS shakes his head, scratches out all he's written so far, and starts off with a different character - still cockney, but perhaps he'll call her Eliza...hmmmm.... could be funny...})
cheer
the sunshine warrior
