I could not figure out how to make it work so I have gone back to the old system and I will just ignore the comments when I want to and go on as though they were not there. I had some nice messages from folks which cheered me up and as for those of you who clutter up the comments section, get a life.
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As one of those accused of "cluttering up the comments section", I'm going to plead "not guilty".
We don't clutter up the comments section. Take a look around internet and you'll see obscenities, vulgar insults, a battle of stereotypes against stereotypes, gross dogmatism.
A couple of folks here do insult others from time to time, but in general the level of comments is intelligent, learned, rational and well thought out, including those of a certain person whom I generally disagree with.
So that's not clutter. The comments may not be relevant to your original post, but they are often worth reading.
We read you (Professor Wolff) with interest and attention. You might try reading us from time to time. Reciprocity works wonders.
Glad to see you back and glad to be back. Best...
But I think Prof. Wolff was objecting to the fact that so many of the regulars here use the blog to carry on their own on-going, long-term arguments/conversations with each other which often have little to do with the theme he is hoping will be followed and explored. Interesting as the regulars may find such conversations, I imagine this in-group sort of discussion doesn't encourage others to participate in the blog. Frankly, however much the insiders might enjoy each other, outsiders also likely find their recurrent presence just a bit boring. I can't speak for Prof. Wolff, of course, but I imagine he'd appreciate a wider participation.
I'm glad Prof Wolff tried the experiment bc I've decided I've spent too much time here and it's a good time for me to stop commenting here. I've got my own blog anyway, and if I have something to say I'll say it there, or perhaps on the one or two other blogs on which I occasionally leave comments.
About a year or two ago when it became clear certain people weren't going away I shrugged and accepted that the comments section of this blog developed a life of its own apart from Professor Wolff - something more akin to a communications channel in IRC or a Multi-User Dungeon than a place to respond to the author's posts.
For what it's worth, thinking of the comments section of the blog as a community rather than an a formerly erudite forum overtaken by obnoxious lawyers with too much time on their hands made meess irritated by the direction of the comments section. But it also made me more or less stop reading the comments or posting.
RPW: I wrote a short post about an interesting shift in the theoretical analysis of society in the late 19th and early 20th century and no one so much as had the courtesy to take note of it.
I have had quite a few thoughts about several of your recent posts, but I thought it would be better to keep my comments to myself, as I thought some of what I might say might be thought to be irksome.
And for some of the topics you discuss, it can take a lot of time to offer something thoughtful to say in the comments. Time that isn't always available.
Rest assured your posts were not ignored.
S. wallerstein: Try this: You are in the salon of a world-renowned philosopher/professor who posts for all the world "A Commentary on the Passing Scene" - nuggets of his thoughts, observations, distillations of decades of beautifully written bits for our delectation. He has graciously allowed us free commentary on his postings.
That is the crux of how this blog differs from all the ones you so blithely allude to as if you were the arbiter of what is germane to the genre. You are much too old to hold on to the ignorant role of the callow youth who feels free to "educate" the author: "You might try reading us from time to time." You, s. wallerstein, might try to understand your host!
I would also say that Prof. Wolff should rather find pride in the fact that he's fostered a small online community that is as pleasant as it is, compared to what is out there.
People's comments may not always be on topic, but I can assure him that what he writes is read with great interest. Also his post on the evolution of the term "middle class".
decessero,
You obviously do not know much about the history of the French salon. It was a meeting place at the home of a female French socialite (the male counter parts were referred to as a cercle) where the cognoscendi and literati of the day convened to discuss all manner of subjects relating to politics, culture and art. There was no formal structure or agenda, and subjects ranged over a wide variety of topics. The hostess did not monitor the discussion, nor did she regulate who could speak. It was intended to cultivate innovative thought and played a significant role in generating the perspectives which led to the French Revolution. Now, Prof. Wolff has every right not to want to conduct his blog as a salon – in fact, what he wants is the direct opposite of a salon – and, therefore, your comparison of this blog to a salon is sycophantic rubbish.
I will admit that I was the most intractable of the usual suspects in regard to submitting off-topic comments. But I usually tried to submit them only after I had submitted a comment that was on topic. I had, I believe, over time moderated my tendency to being acerbic, until I read Eric’s reiteration of a series of anti-Israeli tweats that, to my mind, amounted to anti-Semitism. And there is a lot of that going around these days, both in the United States and abroad, and I, for one, will not stand silent when it occurs in my presence, any more than I have stood silent when racist comments about Blacks have been made in my presence.
This will be my last comment on this blog. I certainly do not want to stick around where I am not wanted. In parting, I wish to observe, however, that there are a lot of people who comment on this blog – not all, certainly, but a good number – who are very smug and pretentious, and who are intent, perhaps not surprisingly, on pandering to Prof. Wolff’s intellectual sentiments. Prof. Wolff, I do have another very active life, and, at your suggestion, I will spend more of my time there. Paraphrasing Wordsworth, I will say this to my former mentor: Some philosophers in their youth begin in gladness, but thereof come in the end despondency and madness.
Marc:
I, for one, would miss your contributions to The Philosophers' Stone.
I'll second what you say, David, with the reservation that Marc restrains from insulting people.
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