The Virtual Community: Democracy and Participation on the Network: Newsgroups and Listserv's
Newsgroups and Listserv's are two mechanisms on the Internet for the discussion of a wide variety of topics from Clinton, to Libertarianism, to Gingrich, to Letterman, to Star Trek to evolution. You name it the discussion group is there. Machines and technology seem on the surface to drive us apart as we spend hours alone absorbed in the glow of our monitor. In fact the Internet has fostered what many call " Virtual Communities" with people tied together electronically in discussion groups not limited by time or space. The Internet is also more egalitarian and less prejudiced less prejudiced than than the larger society with a person's contribution judged not in terms of sex, age, color of their skin, or any other criteria other than their ideas and ability to express themselves.
Newsgroup/Usenet
A Newsgroup is a kind of electronic newspaper, but one where the editorial section dominates the paper. There are over 10,000 newsgroups in which information is posted to an electronic bulletin board. You can "lurk" (Internet paralance) at the newsgroup and read the exchange of information which has been posted. In many newsgroups you can get a real sense of a dialogue over time by reading the posting of letters to one Newsgroup for several months as the group moves through a variety of topics. For example a Newsgroup on Clinton will contain innumerable letters on Whitewater, or the defeat of the Democratic party in the 94 election. Those who are exchanging ideas in a Newsgroup come to understand, tolerate and even learn from the opinions of others. They develop what DeTocqueville and Machiavelli called civic traditions. Too often in American society, particularly over the past fifteen years, discussion has been defined in terms of individualistic rights a language which act to trump alternative positions. People state absolutist positions in which compromise, or even more importantly the possibility of dialogue and tolerance becomes impossible. DeTocqueville, writing in the 1830's and 1840's on American society praised our civic traditions where we participated in local governments, churches, the courts, and associations of all types. In these institutions we became more humane with our rights seen not as trumps on each others actions, but as gurantees against government instrusion and reflective of citizens bound by "reciprocal obligation and mutual interdependence." See the discussion of civic traditions in two recent marvelous works in Democratic theory: Jean Bethke Elshtain, Democracy on Trial (N. Y.: Basic Books, 1994) and the immensely subtle and scintillating work of Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy ( Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1994). This thread of civic tradition, is tied to the Republican/ Civic Humanist tradition and returns us back to Machiavelli" Discourses.
Newsgroups are hardly the "solution" to the weakening of civic traditions in American society, but they do point to an alternative model and suggest an another picture of human possibility. If you wish to join one of these Newsgroups, particularly one that is well established an exemplifies the sort of traditions and community amongst its participants discussed above net etiguette suggests that your enterance into the dialogue should follow certain rules. It is best at first to delay joining and read instead the exchange of letters over time and only when you get the drift of the discussion joining in the dialogue. The beginning of all newsgroups includes FAQ's which are in clarifing issues previously raised and providing a sense of the norms of the group. I have set up links to some of the Newsgroups, which I will add to very shortly, in politics and poltical theory. Simply scroll down to one that sounds interesting and see what they have to offer. I have included a sampling of Newsgroups on political topics and a few specifically dealing with the BGU. One last distinction that you should be aware of. Newsgroups are either moderated or unmoderated. In a moderated group there is some guru/chief who screens all mail and will only post the mail he/she finds advancing the discussion into the bullentin board. Many groups are not moderated. Discussion in moderated groups tends to be much better.
I have provided a representative sample of some of the Newsgroups in Politics and Political Theory
FAQ's and the Newsgroups--This is a new site on the World Wide Web that is very useful for the new subscriber to a Newsgroup. This site offers an alphabetical listing of FAQ's of the newsgroups
Listservs are like a Newsgroup except that the exchange of letters is forwarded directly into your e-mail account. Listserv groups, of which there are over 6,000, discuss very broad subject areas or very often very narrow subject matter. They tend to be more professionally oriented than Newsgroups with many Listserv's established at universities. Our listerv for modern political theory is modern-l. One factor to consider in a Listserv is that some of these groups are very active and you can receive several hundred letters in a single day. Bablyon, the tv series, has a fan club that can overwhelm you with e-mail in several days. Choose wisely if you decide to subscribe and limit yourself to only a few of these Listserv groups. You can, of course, always unsubscribe from such a group if they became too unwiedly.
One last cautionary remark. The Internet is a veritable "free for all" of information and many participants on the net defend the right of free speech in all of its glorious diversity. There are some quite raunchy discussion groups that you might find very offensive. You must exercise discretion and common sense. A Newsgroup or Listserv with a suspicious title should be enough to tip you off that they are not focusing on the federal budget, discussing the 94 elections, or political acitivism in Georgia. The management can make no guarantees about what is on the network. You as responsible citizens must exercise the proper restraint. (I have not created links to such servers in these pages.)
We also have our own listserv in Modern Political Theory to exchange information and ideas outside the classroom. You have instruction on the pink handout on how to subscribe to modern-l.
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Listserv
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Jump to listing of Modern Political Theory web sites
Charles Helm mfcjh@bgu.edu