Junking up the List (Chomsky, Etc.)

[Eliot Borenstein]

Dear Serguei,

Setting aside the question of the actual opinions expressed in the
Chomsky and Fisk articles, your posting of them to SEELANGS really
was an unfortunate breach of the accepted standards for posting to
listservs.  This is not to suggest that the day-to-day postings on a
Slavic listserv are at all significant in comparison to what has just
happened.  Like most people I know, I have been virtually glued to
the television since this all began, and even if I wanted to ignore
it, given that I live in what Guiliani has dubbed the "frozen zone"
south of 14th street, I have no such luxury.  You can choose to  stop
looking at the disaster site, but you cannot opt not to smell it in
the air.

If you wanted to facilitate debate about the causes of yesterday's
attacks, not only did you choose the wrong forum, but you also most
likely have achieved something entirely different, and something
entirely pointless:  for the next several days, our inboxes will be
filled with debates as to whether or not you were right to post these
articles.  And I apologize to everyone else on the list for
contributing to the problem.

So SEELANGS is going to become even more annoying and off-topic than
ever.  Why treat a listserve as though it were a chat room? If I had
wanted to get an unending supply of spam, I would have signed up for
an AOL account.

With disappointment,

Eliot Borenstein
Asosciate Profesor & Chair
Russian & Slavic Studies
New York University

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