This is madness.

Having taken the opportunity to dip my toe in the proverbial water of this debate, I am more deeply persuaded than ever that it runs way too deep for the context within which it exists.

There is a whole submerged Archive of precedent and long considered opinion on this issue more proportionate to a law Library than to what, in all fairness, equates to a squabble between regulars at a bingo hall concerning whose seat is whose.

My conclusion, with which I bow out, is that this is actually all about personalities and that the "issue" is just a big impenetrable smokescreen.

I think this applies to those on both sides of the argument and that posting on these points is a compulsion for the abusers as much as for the abusee.

However, the main issue for me remains, increasingly so, that ultimately this is an unhealthy experience, particularly in the long term, for Shambles and it would be in his interests to drop it. I believe he has a responsibility to himself to do so.

I also believe that the abusers need to face up to their weakness in this matter and to accept that if they do not wish to deal with shambles they should leave him alone.

As I said a while ago on another thread, he is the playground punchbag. He's an easy target and you can be sure of a cheer from the crowd when you score a hit.

He's like a volunteer bull at a bullfight, but that doesn't suddenly make bullfighting ok.

Shambles is harmless. Just leave him alone and there will be no argument.

And if he posts in a way you don't like - so what. Just read the next post or refer to the one before and keep the thread on track.

If you engage him in argument, then you cannot expect him to roll over and die. You will merely find yourself getting frustrated at both his stubbornness and his depth of reasoning.

You may find yourself tempted to take that frustration out on him, and so the cycle continues.

As I've said before, the relationship is symbiotic. Like that of a codependant couple. Destroying each other, but remaining together nonetheless, looking forward to their next row as despite the pain it causes it will be a familiar part of their routine and in the absence of positives is a source of a perverse kind of security and stability.

This has been my last post on the subject.


Good luck.