A final word on Dall, Pavin and censorship

My letter was not about censorship. The remark was made parenthetically (indicating that it was a secondary thought) and I said nothing more about censorship.

Dall, who thinks my letter was about censorship, has brought up an interesting point, however, that rejection is not censorship. If I read something that I disagree with and think is rubbish, I reject that argument. Dall is correct. I have rejected, not censored. If I refuse to pass what I consider to be bulls**t to someone else (Dall, for example) to read, I am controlling what others (including Dall) can read. That is, I am censoring.

Dall called for the editor of The Nation to use a bulls**t stamp on Pavin’s article and not pass it on to others to read. That is, Dall called for the editor of The Nation to censor what he prints in his paper.

But I admire Dall’s ability to argue that a white horse is not a horse. It is Public Relations’ loss that Dall was a teacher. Dall would have had a phenomenal career in American government or business.

Judging Dall’s letter contra Pavin by the criteria (meat-to-fat ratio, dirty-to-drinkable water, blind assumptions and naked biases, hear without illumination) by which he or she thinks the editor of The Nation should have rejected (not censored, mind you) Pavin’s article, I find Dall to be Pavin’s match.

Both had one point to make – Pavin, that Bangkokians are not special people deserving of special treatment, and Dall, that he or she thinks Pavin’s point is bulls**t.

I found Dall’s letter to be as one-sided for his or her naked bias as Pavin was for his. Nor did I detect any better understanding of the topic – which in the end is humanity – in Dall, than the latter found in Pavin.

So, asking myself Dall’s question for judging the quality of writing and whether it should be printed, I ask: How much of what I learned from Pavin’s article and Dall’s letter contra Pavin is of any use? I learned what each of them thinks – and that is very useful information to have.

Stephen Merriman

Bangkok