THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Perhaps a little Buddhist restraint is in order…

Perhaps a little Buddhist restraint is in order…

Re: “False gentility is a poor disguise for extremist hate” and “A fascist sawing at the democratic branch on which he sits,” Have Your Say, December 12.

I concur with Ian Martin’s plea for contributors to this column (call them Sayers) to moderate their rhetoric. I used to admire Dr Frank’s letters as models of genial wit. Increasingly they have morphed into models of distinctly ungenial vitriol. I suspect that this deterioration in civility correlates with the imminence of his return to his frozen homeland and its predictably unhappy effect on his gonads.
I urge the good doctor to cultivate the magnanimous side of his nature and follow what should have been the First Commandment: Be nice! On a rhetorical level, he might also forswear the overuse of the adjective “swivel-eyed”. Let’s not abuse the tolerance of the editors, who cheerfully allow references to turds and gonads to stain the purity of this column. Remember the words of the Buddha: “Restraint of the eye is good; restraint of the ear is good; restraint of the nose is good; restraint of the tongue is good. Good also is restraint in deed; good is restraint in speech; good is restraint of the mind.” (Dhammapada 360-361.) To meet the needs of our increasingly degenerate but switched-on age, we might add: “Best of all is restraint of the fingers on the keyboard.”
Let’s show a little class, Sayers. That’s high class, not low.
Ye Olde Pedant

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