Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Date:         Mon, 7 Sep 1992 15:10:16 EDT
From:         "Daniel A. Foss" <DFOSS@CCVM.SUNYSB.EDU>
Subject:      Boosting the ratings

Prolonged observation and study of response patterns, unsystematically and to
be truthful in the most slovenly fashion possible as I pretend to no Knowledge,
the following rule emerges:

   "Flaming" is what e-mail is for.

The implication is that picking a fight with someone I can convince myself is
engaged in "defensive networking," as Paranoid Central says is Politically
Correct for Conspiracy, against myself. This can always be arranged without
the slightest effort; Paranoia is the Default, and not only with me. This one
started back in February when, during a lonely and boring night, I Overdosed,
and not just on Caffeine either, which was what make yesterday's post turn out
completely different from the one I had planned to write: Due to budget cuts
this windowless room is 99 degrees and up; the airconditioning was shut off on
Sept 1 but they neglected to turn down the heat outside. Guys are sitting
around with shirts off; I have to wear the Pierre Cardin suit and sweat
bullets. To retain awareness with fading memory I took four NoDoz; same fading
awareness induced forgetting I did so and took four more. Forget what passed
for content after that. (Note: We get real Nicaraguan again, and it's the labor
intensive stuff in the backward Nica coffee industry which adds a little extra
toxicity. The Salvadorans, makeshift source, had stolen US aid to reduce labor
inputs.)

Anyhow it was on a dark (outside) and windowless night (inside) I generated a
disgusting piece of fiction called "The Great Mother-In-Law Goddess of the
Elamites," throwing in every disgusting sickening thing from primitive
religions I could dredge up where original intent was denial of any likelihood
Goddess religions, imaginary anyway, you have some of one and some of the other
and the Big Guy is married to the Big Her. Peasants are scared of single male
juvenile delinquent gods like Yahweh. What the Thingie turned into I'd call, I
have called in a letter to the recipient in futile peacemaking gesture, I
called something like, "the scenario for the Mafia-porno XXX-rated snuff movie
version of the Clan of the Cave Bear." Regaining senses, I sent profuse apolo-
gies to the recipient, whose name was Bayla Singer. Why did I send the thing to
Bayla Singer? I didn't know her, except for a one line letter; so if she never
had anything to do with me again, who cares: I forgot what was in it when Drugs
wore off. Reports had it that Bayla Singer was a little weird for a while.
Recent dealing over Bayla Singer's request to use the posting Renato Barahona
first objected to for her own list, WORDS-L@UGA, which I denied, generated
correspondence which demonstates conclusively Bayla Singer continues to regard
me as something like the Hillside Strangler. Agnes Kruchio is on WORDS-L@UGA, a
tight-buddies, well-nigh impenetrable in-group. (So <shudder> is Natalie Maynor
[i.e., is the thing stored in Ra.Mssttate.Edu somewhere?] Singer was reluctant
to even tell me about WORDS-L, had almost needed to use tweezers. Singer or
Kruchio told aforementioned userid@AECOM.YU.EDU, who threatened me with Flame
War to the Death to avenge white womanhood. You don't have to be Paranoid to
know who did FOSS-L, but this was a mere pinprick of poor quality. I had
already pointed out the inadequacy of the resources available to him compared
to those deployed earlier by BLUE HERRING in successful effort to induce a
Psychotic Episode in public, objective whereof was Censorship imposed from
Germany. Besides, he, userid@AECOM.YU.EDU, had Other Things To Do for career
development, I did not, was just whiling away the empty hours. I'd post him
into the ground if it was the last thing I did. The testosterone really flows
with a male or with BLUE HERRING.

With the kind of life I described yesterday, to expect I was going to be
anything but misogynistic is utopian. But I recognize it as morally wrong and
evil. The damage is however done and I try best I can to avoid women and
espouse their causes. I do best at this when they are far away. Meeting women
in person or attempting to converse in English with women or any gender
hardware and software inclusive is normally disastrous. Women avoid me more
sedulously than that. Still, in the abstract, I support whatever they are for
politically and if I criticize them for any reason it is for conservatism. So
I'm sorry again, Bayla Singer, if you are within the sound of my keyboard,
send it to Zielke if you like, I am losing it, cannot last past November. They
will take away Drugs and shut off my mind, so go ahead. Guilty is Guilty.

Individual women, well, there is always trouble. Same with individual men. But
if this is Bayla's friend who's trying to save womanhood from the Hillside
Strangler, then I'm a feminist issue and anything said by party in question is
by me disbelieved, the rest of you can believe the Normal person, which is the
Default. Besides, "defensive networking" ensures only the Public discourse is
visible to the Public. Lenny's posts in the exchange in question were clearly
Fish stories in the BLUE HERRING tradition.

I am in a bad mood for other reasons altogether. It concerns women, neither of
whom is party to this mess. And my onetime best friend who published an article
in a math journal while I'd achieved Nothing, as usual, establisheing yet again
the Grand Design of the Universe to his disadvantage, dDue to one half of what
is vulgarly called a "one night stand" in USA culture and mentioned in Foss to
Adler in Foss e-mail diary, whole entry file being sent to Adler.
Wherefrom he copied a pargraph from the letter beginning with a Name, told
ANTHRO-L and FNORD-L that Name, which was of woman[2], saying I'd unethically
posted it, which was false, delusion or lie. The substantive effect, if not the
intent, was woman[1] writing dozens and dozens of e-mail each asking who was
Name. There went my last friends. Here comes schizoaffective disorder with mood
incongruent peyxhotic symptoms, I can feel it in my guts.

Sorry sorry sorry, people.

As for George Welling, I am terribly sorry about him, but he has a way of
quickly Pouncing on one Point. The way I see it, e-mail was potentially a
new medium of intellectual presentation for people who are not afraid to be
WRONG. It is, as I see it, a medium for messing around and mucking about with
experimental ideation. The empirically observable surfaces of social life, and
even for a long long way down, are mutually contradictory and messy.

Exploratory analysis should reflect that messiness and self-contradiction. Do
not jump on this or that Point, grab hold of as much of the whole mess as you
can hold on.

Making Points is a Crutch.
Coming to the Point is a Crutch.

Stop trying to write like a Real [Professional] Man, you'll still pick them up,
but maybe one will be an Intersting one for a change. This advice is for George
Welling and other Normal guys; I have no real prospects of meeting women or
even protozoa over television.

Sorry about all this stuff, tough to take if you aint human to begin with.

Polysemia & nostalgia note: Valentine Michael Smith is a play on VAX/VMS and
Robert Heinlein's Martian-born Michael Valentine Smith from Stranger in a
Strange Land. Michael Valentine Smith was irresistable to women. This is
misleading. The real Martian looks like me. The real Martian would not get
caught dead trying to grok in fullness. The real Martian watches you from what
sociologists call The Martian Perspective because you will never let the real
Martian near you.

Now to write the post originally scheduled for this time.

Sincerely,
Daniel A. Foss
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