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A Time of Transition

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Dwarfstar	A Time of Transition		Lead	[-]
Posts: 72 04/03/10 00:33:21	Tags : None Remove this ad Yes, I have been quiet lately. It is not my intent, nor is it my purpose in this world to influence others. I am merely a conduit. As Spaceshot noted, I have been "lurking" on the board without posting. That does not mean that I do not care what is happening with all of you. I am attached to all of you more than I have even let on. I hear the anger that several of you display toward me. I understand that. But if you look back, I have done nothing here but support each and every one of you. How long have we known each other. I've seen some of you say three years, but I think X is right -- it's been more like four. And in that whole time, has any of you ever known me to have one foul or negative word? I have worked hard to move all of you in a positive direction. I understand that I am not some "elected" leader. And I do not assume a leadership role with you. Many of you attempt to attribute this to me, but that is not fair. The only "leadership" activity I have ever come close to following is to give some of you a short break from communicating here when you have taken things too far. X, you condemn my attempts at "leadership," then you call out to me to ban Flash, who lashed out (granted in a wildly inappropriate manner) in a time of hurt. I am not the manners police. I banned SoCo for his overt attack on a fellow member in his time of trouble. That was uncalled for. Certainly some of the words and insults Flash wrote were inappropriate and very offensive. However, despite this, I did not see it as appropriate to "ban" him for his words. Despite what Miles said the other day, I don't view this message board or this community as a cancer. I see it as a group of hurt souls who need guidance. For all of our troubles, we have each other -- a group who understands, sympathizes, and empathizes with one another. I chose not to share my "troubles" with you here. That is not my role in this community. I am an impartial "coordinator" for lack of a better term. My only leadership is to occasionally share thoughts and ideas that I have -- these are ideas that you can heed, commend or condemn. I only put them out there. There is so much fear and judgment in this group. I do not consider myself to be fully enlightened. However, I will say that my life has been freer and easier since I decided many years ago to let those two things go. I have tried for years with each and every one of you to share my views on letting go that fear and judgment -- for this, I believe, is the true path to freedom. Some of you have agreed with me at times. But mostly I have been scorned and called all manner of names from "kook" to "cult leader." For me to be a cult leader, you all would have to be a cult. This group is anything but a "cult," as we lack the fundamental feature of a cult -- that is to be "followers of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices." Do any of you agree on a single thing? [continued] Last Edited By: Dwarfstar 04/03/10 00:42:10. Edited 1 time.
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Dwarfstar		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 72 04/03/10 00:41:42	Continuing ... From politics to sports to religion to lifestyle -- there could not be a more disparate group socially than this crew. Yet there is some bond that holds us all together. And now I am watching that bond unravel at a time when we could truly rely on one another -- a time when we could benefit from our relationships formed over years of deep and meaningful conversation. Are we not, after all this time, friends? If not friends, then what are we? Friends in the Internet age needn't share common beliefs, geography, goals, ideology, or social status. True, to be "friends," we must share something. I suggest that what we share is a common struggle and a camaraderie that is built not on a superficial or circumstantial nature. Our bond is built on our openness and honesty. Have you not all come to feel for each other over the years? Do you not find yourself thinking of others here when you are not visiting this community? Do you not picture a face of each of the members here though we have never met? Do you not hear the voices of the others? We, my friends, are in a time of transition now. Change is hard. But I ask that in this troubling time that we not abandon each other or come apart at the seams. Now is the time to unite. To unite to fight the demons that lurk within and without each of us. Please, do not shut the others out. Consider all that we've "been through" together -- all that we've shared. We may not have relations in the physical world, but I would like to posit that there are none deeper than those we've formed here ... Here in this "place" that is our sanctuary. Maybe started by the anonymity of the nameless, faceless internet. But would any of you disagree with the notion that this "community" has become something much greater? Please consider all of this before you all storm away. Not for me ... for yourselves.
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xfactor		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 134 04/03/10 21:33:58	Dwarfstar, How do you know that SoCo is not in a time of hurt? When is it okay to attack? Whom is it okay to attack? Where is the line for even the hurting? My trouble is not so much that SoCo was banned and Flash was not as it is that you and you alone are making these decisions. As in playing god in this little group. You say that we are not a cult, but again that is using your own personal definition of the term. Cult is a very fluid and subjective concept. We are not a cult in religions terms, we certainly do not worship you as our cult leader or blindly follow you, but you cannot deny that you have influenced this group even when you seem to be just lurking. You ban SoCo and this gives the rest of us the idea that SoCo was out of line while Flash, being allowed to stay, was acting in an acceptable manner. This affects out perceptions of them and therefore our relationships with them. Dictionary.com listed several different definitions for the term cult, one of them being "a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc" Okay, well that sounds like us to me. We generally seem to venerate our own misery. Time and time again, that is what has brought us back to each other, back to this group. Misery loves company and the company can be found here. Even with our occasional respite, we all seem to come back to misery over and over again. We revel in it, we honor it, we are comfortable in it- even if we do not want it- we are a cult. The Cult of the Miserable.
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