Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!udel!princeton!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Curiosity
Message-ID: <603@mccc.UUCP>
Date: 28 Apr 88 17:51:01 GMT
References: <598@mccc.UUCP> <2398@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Reply-To: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg)
Organization: The College On The Other Side of Route 1
Lines: 22

In article <2398@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:
...There have been several studies of flaming behavior, but they're mostly in
...the CS literature (Communications of the ACM, among others) rather than
...the psych literature. (I don't have a reference to hand, but I think
...there's a fairly recent one on my shelf at home).

OK -- when can I come over and look at your shelf.  :-)

...Robert E.  Howard (author of the original "Conan" stories) proposed a
...rationale for flaming long before the nets were invented.  I don't know
...how valid his theory is, but I find it intuitively elegant.  From
...approximate memory:
...
...     Barbarians are always more polite than civilized people because
...     civilized people don't have to be as concerned about having their
...     head split over a verbal insult.

Sounds like an oxymoron to me.  Barbarians are not noted for their
politeness, or are we talking about different barbarians?

The answer to the question "what constrains them?" is simply their own
internalized behavior -- and perhaps their sanity!