Don Johnstone writes
'Violence is the last resort of the incompetent' No, not a personal
attack, a quote attributed to Salvor Hardin or Isacc Assimov, but true
nevertherless.

Sorry, I was being flippant, in that I found the word "incompetent" an
ironic and amusing word on your part to mis-spell. Should have made
myself clearer, though I should have also made it clear that I meant no
offence in pointing the typo out.

Your picking that quote in the context that you did, however, seemed to
suggest that the previous writer was incompetent as demonstrated through
their stooping to "verbal violence", thus my suggestion to the effect
that he could fight his own battles if he so wished.

Avoiding issues and favouring attacking those who perhaps identify a
problem is not the answer to anything. Lennie may be everything you say
but should we ignore everything he says? Is there not the remotest
chance he may be right? If he is wrong perhaps reasoned argument is a
better way to show this than hurling abuse.

"Lennie the Lurker" may or may not be everything I say, and I'm sure
we'll all use our own judgement on that. I would point out (perhaps
belatedly and after the fact on my part, however) that the *person*
behind Lennie the Lurker could be anything, and of any quality or
otherwise. I really am not one to judge. The Internet by its very nature
creates a Lord of the Flies effect that encourages some of us to behave
and communicate in a manner that we wouldn't dream of doing in real life
because of the reduced accountability the anonymity of the net provides.

However, the somewhat verbose point of my previous post was to
illustrate my opposition to your suggestion that he might be right. I
tried to propose a "reasoned argument" by the counterpoint of my own
experiences in contrast to his. I don't believe Lennie's experiences are
typical of the majority that find themselves drawn to gliding, and I
don't believe the previous writer's reaction to the way that Lennie
portrays his views to be endemic of any problem particular to this
community.



--
Bill Gribble

/---------------------------------------\
| http://www.cotswoldgliding.co.uk |
| http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk |
\---------------------------------------/