Another two cents. Some flamers here are people who believe that the world is fundamentally driven by self-interest and power; and that anyone who says or acts differently is either a hypocrite or a fool. It is a sort of pseudo-Nietzschean approach: only conflict really brings out the truth that we are really at war with one another. They proceed to try and create conflict, so that at the end of the day they can say: "See, your wimpy little masks of sweetness are off, and you are revealed to be a nasty bastard like me, but at least I admit it." It is a way of being superior. It is usually brought on by expressions of concern, prayer circles, and so on -- the flamer has to wreck these overt threats to his world view. More fundamentally, any expression of community like the Mudcat is a threat, and has to be unmasked as a potentially seething mass of mutual hypocrisy. It is all very childish and tedious.

yours, Peter T.