3445  Why would anyone want to unsubscribe?

Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 17:07:11 +0000
From: Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Why would anyone want to unsubscribe?

Steve Brown quite appropriately (as usual) says: "With all this merriment
related to tango, why would anyone want to
unsubscribe from Tango-L?
;-) ;-)" ... and then Alberto Gesualdi, equally appropriately, brings to
us Gracian with a conclusion by Jorge Luis Borges :

"Absorbed in his microscopic subjects,
Gracian did not see the glory
and continues solving in his mind
labyrinths, counter reasonings and emblems."

Jorge Luis Borges

Why would anyone want to unsubscribe?

It does not matter what you say, what you talk about, if you do it well, if
you do it badly, if your reasoning is supported by reality, if it is all
fictitious, you are always to elicit some form of negative reaction. It does
not matter how useful your contribution could be to clarify the nebula of
ignorance that cover some areas of our microscopic tango world, you will
never, or very seldom experience any gratitude although you may be surprised
to see your words used by somebody else later on.

So at the beginning there is ignorance about the fact that there are several
tango styles, so everyone talks about tango, HIS tango, a different style
from the listener's and there is a bitter discussion that reminds us of the
Babel tower, nobody understand the language spoken by the other. If you
explain that there are different styles, everybody hates you because they
thought THEY were doing the only REAL tango. If you speak about tango
roles, feminine and masculine in tango, feminist start hating you, after
all, they do not want to be anyone's followers.

If you recognize the contributions of African Music to tango but dare to say
that "black slaves" were not the ONLY creators of tango, then you are hated
by the French speaking black of the list, if you talk about golden era tango
and its values, the alternative tango people hates you, if you talk about
alternative life styles, alternative tango, alternative music or anything
alternative, the conservative, orthodox hate you.

Then you have to suffer the attacks of the envious, the controlling, the
ignorant, the nationalistic,
etc, etc.

Undoubtedly there has to be some degree of masochism to be able to endure
all this. Most of the early contributors that knew something about tango
have long left, they keep busy with their own local groups, their own web
pages, their own newsletters.

At the end this list will look like the others just a bill board to show and
announce your commercial activities, and will return to the most interesting
discussions of the "wet noodle" hold or the dreaded "8 count base"... but
even then you might offend the one that likes to step back on the crowded
floor, the one tha likes to teach at the milongas, the one that dances a
milonga as it was a tango and a tango as it was a fox-trot.

To finish some of Gracian's aphorisms: Gracian Baltazar was born in Spain in
1601.

Arrows pierce the body and words the soul.

Silence is the sanctuary of prudence.

Things are not what they are but what they seem to be.

Despise is the most subtle form of vengeance.

It is necessary to act in a way so that you do no blush in front of
yourself.

It is better to want to be dumb with company than wise alone.

Friends are a second existence for yourself.

Have always something to wish for otherwise your happiness will turn you
very unhappy.

It is better to leave things before they leave us.

The most horrendous desert is to have to live without friends.

Know how to ask, nothing so difficult for some and so easy for others.

The best way to have friends is to make friends.

In a nudist colony the strip-tease dancer would find herself among the
unemployed.

Gracian inspired great philosophers such as La Rochefoucauld, Voltaire,
Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

To be part of this list has some good point but this is not the subject of
this note...

I wish you all a very good day.