[Buddha-l] As Swami goes, so goes the nation? (Dan Lusthaus and Richard P. Hayes)

[Richard Hayes]

On Apr 21, 2010, at 9:33 PM, Mitchell Ginsberg wrote:

> I know in some circles, people are requested to add a marker that they are being witty, so that others are clued into their attitude explicitly.

It's part of the decline of civilization that so many people now require intelligence-insulting emoticons to tell them when someone is being ironic. Imagine what a page from Mark Twain would look like if his editors had required him to put a smiling face or a winkicon behind every sentence that was not to be taken literally at face value.

> I realize that is quite primitive, but then again, email is not the most elegant of channels of communication.

E-mail is no different from any form of communication that relies on visible symbols for spoken words. There is nothing about an e-mail message that makes it different from a line of Horace. Well, I take that back. There's a big difference. People still read e-mails. Most people don't know who Horace is. Isn't that the name of the Jewish butcher down the street?

Dr Peavler informs me that Willie Nelson once lamented "I have outlived my dick." Our fate is even worse. We have outlived civilization. And now we all require imbecilic cues to tell us when to laugh and when to cry.

Mitchell, you mention the northeastern United States as if it were the home of ironic and mordant wit. Now while I would be the first to admit that there has never been an ironic remark made in the state of Wisconsin, I am pretty confident that in my native New Mexico I have encountered people whose humor is as dry as the high desert. And I think I met a Californian once who had a satiric bent. But, now that I think about it, he may have been an immigrant from Utah. Even during my recent stay in the Netherlands, I suspected once or twice that pulling legs is not unknown to the Dutch (although the only time I ever actually saw anyone do it was to pull a drunken student out of a canal). 

Cripes! I forgot to sprinkle this e-mail with clues as to how to react to my words. Here. Let me put in a few. Place them where you see fit. 

;-) :-> 8-{P |-( 

Coyote