Re: Silent participation

nate (schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu)
Fri, 10 Sep 1999 14:05:56 -0500

Vincent,

Just to share a little of how I responded to your messages. I read the
messages with interest and visted the two websites you had posted. From my
standpoint, I didn't see them out there and were important in my sense
making. Some of your later messages were again interesting, and I
responded by visiting your website and the Narrative Psychology site. In
having a more or less protestant socialization I heard many interesting
stories about Catholics (believed Mary was God was one that comes to mind
;)) so I read one of your radical catholic pages with great interest.
These were some of the ways (silent from your perspective) I responded to
your messages.

Nate

----- Original Message -----
From: Vincent W. Hevern <hevern who-is-at maple.lemoyne.edu>
To: <xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 10, 1999 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: Silent participation

> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Eva Ekeblad <eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se>
> >To: <xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
> >Sent: Friday, September 10, 1999 3:16 AM
> >Subject: Re: Silent participation
> >
> >"We are living with a contradiction here, and when I look at the
patterns
> >of participation I am always reminded that there's a
> >lot of silence in this conversation -- and I am convinced that this is
not
> >just the silence of participants who are subscribed but "absent" --
> >travelling, offline, or just too busy to even read the mail they're
> >receiving -- and not just the silence of active readers (whose invisible
> >contribution to the activity puzzles me, methodologically, as much as
Nate)
> >or the silence due to lack of time for writing or disinterest in current
> >topics. There will also be the silences of participants for whom the
XMCA
> >is NOT a safe place for "speaking"."
>
> I've lurked on this list for almost a year and, in one exchange--the
> one over Mary Daly's case--posted several messages. I voiced a fairly
> conservative viewpoint -- certainly conservative vis-a-vis the
> prevailing zeitgeist of this list.
>
> With the distance of a month or so since that exchange, my reflection
> on the experience has been instructive to me personally. It is
> congruent with Eva's question of the safety of XMCA and similar
> cyberforums. I experienced the exchange on the Daly case as one of
> tremendous disempowerment. Why? Frankly, my postings were generally
> ignored. I devoted a significant amount of time to formulating my
> contributions to the discussion. I knew that I don't have the
> familiarity I should with activity theory and can't use the language
> of the theory with facility, but thought I had something to say. But,
> I concluded afterward that I mustn't have had something to say here
> since silence was the response I mostly received to these postings.
> (I am not including a couple of off-list messages from others at xmca
> who indicated they agreed with me but felt they couldn't contribute
> more publicly.)
>
> Indeed, this experience was instructive and beneficial to me as a
> male since I felt I now have some knowledge about what women
> experience when their own voice is simply ignored in patriarchal
> venues. And, while I recognize that last remark might be judged too
> clever by a mile, I am not being disingenuous. On any variety of
> lists in the past, I've witnessed what sometimes feels like a kind of
> intolerance when certain viewpoints are expressed which challenge the
> thrust of the list. It feels like members of one culture saying to
> someone new from another culture: these are our ways, these are our
> thoughts, you should pay heed or leave. (I know I'm beginning to mix
> some metaphors here.)
>
> My conclusions: For now, it generally doesn't feel safe to post on
> certain topics or to give certain kinds of responses here. I need to
> learn more about the language and concepts which others employ at
> xmca and see how much I can ally myself with them. And, every once in
> a while, I'll post even if I suspect the majority of the list's other
> posters may not feel comfortable with my expression. Hence, today's
> contribution.
>
> BTW, I'm off to Buffalo for the weekend and may not be able to read
> this list for the next couple of days. If I can telnet back to my
> account here, I'll try to follow what's posted.
>
> Vinny Hevern
>
>
>
> +==================================================================+
> + Vincent W. Hevern, SJ, PhD Reilly Hall 220 Office: 315 445-4342 +
> + Associate Prof. & Chair FAX: 315 445-4722 +
> + Psychology Department +
> + Le Moyne College Email: hevern who-is-at maple.lemoyne.edu +
> + Syracuse, NY 13214 USA +
> +==================================================================+
> + Homepage http://maple.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/index.html +
> + Narrative Psych http://maple.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/narpsych.html +
> +==================================================================+
>