Mr. Reger and other list members,
 
Sorry to take so long to respond to the attached note which was posted to
the list. I was attending the SEAC meeting.
 
My original comment was just concerning the quote that was used. It was
not an attack on you, directly.  Still I stand behind it and apply it to
your attached quote with equal vigor.
 
Comments made even in passing, such as a signature comment, carries
influence and argument.  If your intent in meaning is contained in the
quote then using it is entirely correct with no other comment being
needed.  What you didn't seem to understand is that a public statement
can and should be commented on in public by those who agree and those who
disagree.
 
I disagreed.
 
The following is my last comment on the matter.
I do not apologize for addressing this issue.
 
JEDUNCAN
On Thu, 9 Nov 1995, W. M. Reger IV wrote:
 
> Since Mr. Duncan chose to comment on my signature quote TO THE ENTIRE LIST,
> please allow me a single and brief reply.  His comment was:  >What a load
> of Russia bashing and with no flicker of truth.
>
> I use this quote (and others like it) to illustrate a characteristic of
> Russian society and culture which I have observed to be true in history and
> in our own time.  If Edward Clarke overstated his observation we can't
> really blame him:  travelling in Russia, one is sometimes too much inclined
> to see things in stark terms.  At least he was more generous than Baron Von
> Haxthausen in 1856 who wrote:
>
> "Nowhere are the dangers which accompany our modern civilization so evident
> as among the Russians. In the educated classes there are many who have
> acquired the highest European culture; they may be judged according to the
> proverb, -- 'Half philosophy draws a man away from God; perfect philosophy
> conducts man to God'; when half-culture touches a Russian he is ruined; it
> is said that when he shaves off his beard, lays aside the kaftan, and puts
> on a European coat, he becomes a knave. The Russians who have acquired the
> usual West-European cultivation are called lackered barbarians; this is
> inaccurate; they are no barbarians, but a healthy, vigorous, intellectual
> people, of noble race, religious and moral; if however they are brought
> suddenly into contact with and receive taint of modern culture, their
> natural virtues vanish, their religion and morals, simplicity and honesty
> are destroyed, and nothing remains but the animal nature common to man. The
> Russian however then becomes worse than those who bear the poison of
> civilization more easily, from its having been longer united with their
> existing manners."
>
> My apologies for taking up your time,
>
> W. M. Reger IV
>
> sans signature
>
> W. M. Reger IV     :     [log in to unmask]
>