I belong to two history list-serves. One has a moderator, a gate-keeper who screens communications from the all participants and passes along those that are worth-while. The other is VA-HIST, in which any participant who clicks SEND has her or his thoughts (no matter how poorly typed or ill-considered) transmitted instantly to the group.
From time to time during the past decade we've all witnessed moments when the liberty of our un-moderated forum suffers abuse.
Admittedly, the 'authoritarian' style of the other list-serve is more efficient and convenient. Still, I prefer the 'civic republicanism' of VA-HIST to the 'monarchical' order of the other list serve.
Personal responsibility is the difference between being subjects and citizens. When we're at our best, our VA-HIST forum embraces the spirit enshrined by George Mason and Patrick Henry in the last two clauses of the Virginia Declaration of Rights:
XV That no free government, or the blessings of liberty,
can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to
justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue
and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
XVI That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator
and the manner of discharging it, can be directed by reason
and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all
men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion,
according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the
mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love,
and charity towards each other.
VA-HIST can be a wonderful republic of letters - if (as Ben Franklin said the Republic) we can keep it so. In the meantime - because we do here enjoy the absolute freedom of speech that is curtailed for convenience in a moderated list-serve - the DELETE key is the only effective sanction against rhetorical tyrants and demagogues who seem momentarily to have lost sight of “justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue” as well as “forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.”
Jon Kukla
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Jon Kukla ....................... Executive Vice-President
1250 Red Hill Road ........ Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation
Brookneal, VA 24528 .... www.redhill.org .... 434 376-2044
Home 434 376-4172 ...... Office email: [log in to unmask]
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