In my opinion, some of the most creative writing to appear on TM-Free blog in recent months has been a series of comments from someone calling himself "muffpotter" in response to other comments under the following articles:
But it is so *beautiful*! posted May 16, 2011
Will Hagelin have the chutzpah..." posted June 7, 2011
Open Thread for Readers posted June 27, 2011
Reflections on Recent TM Publicity posted July 13, 2011
Let us entertain you... posted by Gina on July 22, 2011
A few words about comments posted July 24, 2011.
I say "has been" because muffpotter (as well as yours truly) now have the distinction of being two, if not the only, commenters banned from posting at TM-Free by current blog moderator Mike Doughney. (It is worth noting that the moderator reins were handed to Mike from blog creator John Knapp in a December 2010 announcement.) My point to all this is that Mike and some of the other contributors at TM-Free don't like to be criticized for the way they run things over there nor being asked to defend their sometimes blatant "untruths" (to put it mildly) about the TMO and its now deceased leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And in their continuing quest to warn others of the dangers of over-practice (referred to as "rounding") of the meditation technique known as TM offered by Maharishi and his initiators since the late 50s, they have turned something once noble (in their minds at least) into a former shadow of itself as nothing more than attention-seeking repetition of "war stories", long-held grudges, and laying all the blame of what some of them have become in life (or should I say "have always been") on a person to whom they devoted their younger years.
And now it appears as though another TM-Free reader has left the ranks of commenter (but of his own accord) because he dared to offer his opinion that there might be some merit to "faith" in one's life, and then double-dared to calmly and rationally defend his opinion against the onslaught of circular arguments that ensued. Foolish man! When reading one of Mike's responses to this commenter, keep reminding yourself that he is the moderator, and hence primary spokesman, for this blog.
My bets are that TM-Free will self-destruct within the year. (Then again, this blog might not survive the month!) However, in Mike's defense, he did become captain of, in my opinion, a sinking ship (or at best, one hopelessly lost at sea) that all the trustworthy and believable contributors and commentors abandoned long ago. (It remains to be seen whether this captain will go down with the ship.) And to his credit, he has not deleted (as yet) the comments made by muffpotter and myself that resulted in our banning. Thanks Mike.
Well, that's about it for now folks, thanks for listening! Please watch for future articles and developments in my "new" project...your sincere comments, although moderated at present, are most welcome.
The Bird
PS. If you're out there friend Muff, I would love to have you writing posts on this blog if you feel so inclined.
LG: Mike made an update to
ReplyDeletehis comment on his July 26 comment. His update states: "[edit, 13 nov 2011: Posts which resulted in this action were, at some point, removed by the respective authors.]"
Do you mind sharing (as best as you recall) what those posts' contents were?
Hi Carol. No, I wasn't aware of Mike's update as stated in your comment. As far as I can see, none of the comments have been removed (I saved complete transcripts of everyone's comments from those threads and have done some quick comparisons), so all the comments are still there for everyone to read. And I'm not aware that it's even possible to delete one's comments after they've been responded to (and believe me, muff and I did receive responses to our comments!) or after one's posting privileges have been taken away. Maybe Mike is implying that there were more egregious comments that have been removed (a deliberately false implication) because the comments still there, such as they are, shouldn't have warranted banning. Regardless, I think I now have my next several posts to my blogs, and I'll more thoroughly compare my transcripts to the blog to see if any comments have been altered or deleted. Thanks Carol!
ReplyDeleteWell, that is very interesting. By Mike's update, I was given the impression that there were more comments and that I was missing something.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read through comments (I may have missed a few), I didn't see anything that, imo, warranted banning...at least for you. Muff did get a rough in personal attacks; yet no more rough than I've read there regarding personal attacks against the TMO or its leaders. I also take into consideration that I don't know the history among Muff and you and the posters at TMF.
Of course, as a blog, TMF can make it's own rules. It is a site critical of the TM Org and of TM itself. Yet, imo, by banning folks without sufficient cause, well....to me that's like information control.
I can see warning Muff (regarding the personal attacks and adjective descriptions of folks at TMF) and then (if s/he continued with the personal attacks) banning.
It really reminds me of some of my experiences at the anti-Way site.
Here is
an article (by Monica Pignotti) that may interest you and that you may have already read. A paragraph from it states:
"Take note: Change is on the way. The anti-cult stars might be immune to criticism from one another and that kind of cronyism may continue among some, but they will have to answer to their State Boards for any violations, if licensed and in my opinion, it is high time that some of them be called out on their behavior which has gone far beyond simply being prima donnas. Note that I am not saying that this applies to everyone in the anti-cult community, but it does apply to some."
The Bird and Others,
ReplyDeleteWhat bothers me most about all of this is a kind of seething cynicism in all of it. I don't mean just TMFree. That's their thing, and they champion it and take a perverse pride in it, and actually feel that they have contributed to the world's events. But the other side as well. The pro-TM'ers have been poisoned as well, even though it is much more disguised with smiles and quotes. What's going on? I just feel that introspection breeds this. That's the culprit, the thief who snitches something very precious from all who play the fiddle with their ego. Muff