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No More Anonymous

Eyewear is tired of the sad and vindictive people out there in the blogosphere who think it makes sense to bravely stand up for themselves, anonymously, and insult me for taking a public stand.  The chief problem with the world of poetry (all worlds?) is transparency - there isn't enough of it.  I stand by my (admittedly evolving, like Obama) views.  Nor do the contributors to this blog ever need to share these views.  I find it pitiful to be receiving very personal, nasty attacks, often daily.  I am a liberal Catholic capitalist - get over it.  I could pretend otherwise, but as the owner of a small business who regularly attends Mass, but is open to freedom of speech and votes for the Lib Dems - none of which ashames me - it would be madness to claim otherwise.  None of these views is without fault - show me which ideology, or belief, is flawless.  However, if I prefer not to roar approval of a victory for socialism in Greece and France which threatens the Merkel consensus for Europe, so be it.  I hope I am proved wrong.  But we are in debt, folks - badly in debt.  Borrowing much more is not, to my mind, fiscally wise - but then again I am a fiscal conservative.  Anyway, all this to say - I have blocked anonymous comments from this blog for now.  Dare to name yourself, if you wish to make a point.
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Comments

Tom Phillips said…
Perhaps the question, though, is 'Are we really in debt?' Or are we only in debt because a certain stratum of our globalised (i.e. neo-colonialist) system is siphoning off the profits to tax-exile multi-billionaires? Because Bill Gates - or indeed Angela Merkel - thinks he/she rules the world? That a great swathe of Europe's population has rejected austerity is significant. Indonesia, for example, is doing very well indeed out of spending like there's no tomorrow. What troubles me, above all things, is that the current depression is making people think narrowly, nationalistically. We are, whether anyone likes it or not, all in this together. It is, perhaps, time to stop bickering about Keynesian economics and look at the alternatives. Call me old-fashioned, but Marx pretty much had it sussed, as far as I'm concerned. It's also worth listening to the Cold War dissidents like Havel or Solidarnosc - a genuine third space where ethics actually has some kind of influence - Levinas, Derrida, Tischner would be a good place to start. Otherwise we're just ramblers weaving across the inhumane terrain defined by Thatcherism.
Thu May 10, 08:19:00 pm 2012
The Editors said…
Todd, I'm with you: anonymous comments are to be deplored and only serve to lower the tone of debate on the internet. It's a known problem of online debate that anonymity or pseudonymity - sp? - help to create a kind of forcefield around those who adopt them as modes of communication, driving them to pitches of irrational rhetoric that they would be appalled to utter in the 'real' world. I've always made it my policy to be as polite - and as candid - to people in an online setting as I would be to them if I met them in the street. It seems the only sensible option, and helps keep debate above the level of the playground mob.

Simon Turner @ Gists and Piths
Thu May 10, 09:14:00 pm 2012
Poetry Pleases! said…
Dear Todd

I myself am a cynical, socialist protestant but to quote Voltaire, 'I do not agree with a single word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to speak!'

Best wishes from Simon
Fri May 11, 07:53:00 pm 2012
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