>I would say the opposite: the future of Bee-L depends on the avoidance of this type of time waster.
> I remember Aaron's herculean effort to make Bee-L about bees and bee related themes.
First and foremost, Bee-L is supposed to be about "informed" discussion.
At one time, being informed and educated meant becoming a Renaissance Man - someone highly educated AND knowledgeable in many fields.
Back then, they understood that without a broad knowledge base, specialized expertise in a narrow field of study was incomplete and had limited value. If someone becomes so specialized in one area, it is difficult to apply that knowledge to the real world if they don't know how everything fits together.
I think many "educated" people today suffer from what is sometimes called the arrogance of the intellect. They forget the old adage - A jack of all trades and a master of none, is better than being a master of only one.
Perhaps even worse is when one is an expert in one field, and then thinks that makes them an expert in all fields.
It doesn't help that many academics (especially in the USA) are nothing more than political apologists and propagandists. They are so dependent upon public funding that research is heavily biased. And heaven forbid anyone discuss the elephant in the room - government policy and regulations, which are a far bigger issue in beekeeping than many want to admit.
If we want to really have an informed discussion of beekeeping and beekeeping issues, we need to look at fiat currency, monetary policy, exchange rates, etc. because these affect profitability of beekeeping operations.
We need to look at tax issues, because taxation greatly affects profits in beekeeping. (Of course, academics do not understand the concept of profits, because academia exists as a socialist institution where profitability is not an issue.)
We need to look at the problems in academic research, such as the proliferation of academia due to free government money via college loans.
We need to look at problems in academic research because of over 90% of academic staff being very left-wing, and right-wing views are largely suppressed which results in funding being directed towards research which supports left-wing ideology.
We need to look at regulatory issues, and the problems caused by government intervention, instead of foolishly thinking that government regulations are a blessing to us.
But if we want to have a truly informed discussion and talk about everything that affects beekeeping, the next thing you know, we will be talking about everything under the sun.
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|