[Tango-L] milonguero blah blah blah

[Andy]

TangoDC.com schrieb:
>  If we paid more 
> attention to what people say here, instead of who does the saying, we'd 
> be onto something. More people might post, fake names or not. More 
> people might sign on to read what we're taking our time (I hope) to 
> write. And it might do some good for Tango as a whole, which is the sole 
> /good/ reason this list is around.
>
>   
Dear Jake,

your argument sounds great. Look at the ideas, not at the names! From a 
theoretical point of view (I know you love theories) you are perfectly 
right. But let us look at the limited possibilities a normal human has. 
Do you read all newspapers in your country? Do look at all pages on the 
web? It might be some very interesting and valuable thoughts out there! 
I am sure you don't. You make a choice, you have your personal selection 
which information you look at and which you ignore. You made this based 
on your experience that some sources are good, others are biased by 
ideologies, others are simply poor. The same is with authors. You don't 
go to the library and read all books in the shelf from left to right. If 
you already know an author and you found he is writing nonsense you will 
not read all his books and hope one day he might express one genial 
thought. He will most likely not express anything new.
It matters who is saying something. If I express some deep thought about 
the American economy nobody cares. If Alan Greenspan made one day a very 
vague insinuation about the level of the stock exchange, a earthquake 
was the result.
Why should someone treat all messages in this list equally? If reading 
Tango-L is your only occupation, it might be OK. But most of us have 
other things to do, like earning some money or simply go dancing. Many 
read this list since years. Almost every argument has already been 
written, the same nonsense come  up in periodic waves. Even this 
discussion has already been carried. It is not easy to find the one new 
idea out of hundred old ones. To understand this idea it is important to 
know the background of the author. He might use new words, but transmit 
the same idea. He might talk about leading, but he is transporting a 
message about gender roles of the past century. Another one talks about 
leading, but his message is close embrace is the only real tango. They 
would never admit it, but if you know their past 100(0) messages, it 
becomes clear. The result is, nobody cares about them any longer. So 
they choose new addresses and try to reinforce their ideology by 
multiplying the apparent number of supporters. Yes, many people believe 
nonsense becomes true if enough people repeat it. It works in politics, 
in public relations, in advertising, it works here too. But deliberately 
multiplying the number of members is cheating.
I don't have the time to care about academic discussions for the sake of 
logics. I prefer honest opinions by real men and women, who know what 
they are talking about and developed their experience on the floor 
(social or stage) and not by imagination. Real honest dancers don't need 
to hide their names.

Cheers
Andy