[IDNO:291] Re: a democracy can defend itself

Dave Crocker (dcrocker@brandenburg.com)
Sun, 13 Jun 1999 09:01:30 -0700

At 08:57 AM 6/13/99 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
> "In any case, "bashing" is a matter of tone as much as it is of
> content. It would be a pleasant relief to hear something in a
> positive tone from you."
>
>is an ad hominem. It is not. Nor is it an insult. It is a civil
>and polite expression of my frustration with Karl's continued
>negative statements about ICANN.

Please forgive my indulging in a rather academic demonstration that
reasonable people can disagree and that that is ok.

I would say the the sentence in question IS an ad hominem, in its purist
form, since it injects "the person" into the discussion, in this case the
person being Karl.

Perhaps rather than referring to "bashing" it would be better, in general,
to look at statements which personalize discussion, rather than foc using
on the content. At its simplest, that means any reference to the behaviors
of people. By extension, it can -- and I think should -- include reference
to the behavior of organizations, where the references go towards
"personalizing" the organization, rather than considering its actions in
more detached and formal terms.

d/

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Dave Crocker Tel: +1 408 246 8253
Brandenburg Consulting Fax: +1 408 273 6464
675 Spruce Drive <http://www.brandenburg.com>
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA <mailto:dcrocker@brandenburg.com>

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