> Richard Brodie wrote:
> > 
> > Zander wrote:
[CLIP]
> > I'm actually working on becoming MORE obnoxious; my tendency is to be
> > nice.
> 
> Here's a hint: Most on /this/ list seem to respond far better to nice,
> pleasant and erudite persuasion.
Most on this list may respond far better to nice, pleasant, erudite 
persuasion--that is, *ineffective* persuasion.
It is my impression that Brodie is going for results, not fluff.  This 
requires a careful balancing act, since memetic schemata for politeness are 
designed to *prevent* communication, including the subform persuasion, 
and usually thoroughly infect hosts to elicit exotoxic reactions versus 
actually communicating "too directly".  Of course, if the content is 
inherently offensive [such as blackmail], there is little need for 
schemata to identify this; it when the content is inoffensive [such as 
Brodie's message] that the politeness schemata start interfering.
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/   Towards the conversion of data into information....
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/   Kenneth Boyd
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