[cap-talk] Capabilities and Freedom vs. Safety

[Toby Murray]

On Wed, 2007-07-25 at 08:46 -0400, David Chizmadia (JHU) wrote:

> I would strongly encourage you to voluntarily discontinue active
> discussion on this list because your now clearly stated assumptions
> are diametrically opposed to the assumptions of pretty much everyone
> else who is a frequent contributor.

<snip>

> In a pragmatic sense, your situation is akin to the case of an
> evangelical Christian minister discussing how to live life as a
> member of the faithful with a group of Muslim imams. There is
> occasional agreement on extremely minor details, but fundamental
> assumptions (doctrine) about the faith being lived are too disjoint
> for sustainable communication to occur and appeals to Christian
> doctrine in the minister's arguments irritate the hell out of the
> Muslims.

Speaking as someone who was converted to caps largely via reading this
list, and through some own experimentation, I have to say that if
cap-talk and e-lang become exclusive forums for capability believers,
then we will be forever preaching to the converted. This will remove all
hope of indoctrinating the unbelievers via these lists.

Reading the archives reveals that there have been many others over the
years who have joined these lists, engaged in the discussion and either
stayed or left having learnt something important. I'd be disappointed if
these lists stopped serving that purpose.