The reason I haven't been here is that I've been there.

Some notes in random order. Helen says "alienation is a condition of communication" and I wonder: or a perhaps condom for communication? Also, she says: "I am fascinated by the mechanics of discourse online and what this can tell us about our non-virtual chatter." In the acknowledgements for Gonzo Marketing, I wrote: "Finally, I’d like to thank the thousands of (valued) EGR readers, who have not only endured my abstruse prolixity and unwarranted abuse, but who continue to grant me the invaluable permission to publicly discover what I mean to say."

Andrew Arnold writes: "In many cases we are our own oppressors." Yeah, Rahsaan Roland Kirk called it volunteer slavery.

Hernani: sorry I haven't answered your mail. I'm a right bastard that way. Cool about the blogged strike.

Mike Sanders: re Us v. Them and treating people in corporations with respect. Of course. And often as not we are those people. I wrote this in Gonzo: "...business professionalism tends to be arid and passionless, narrowly focused, self-involved. However, this doesn't mean that everyone in business fits this damning characterization. Far from it. In my own experience, there are many more lively intellects at work in the workplace than the misbegotten 'corporate communications' coming out of those places would lead one to believe. There’s often more going on in today’s corporation than today’s corporation would care to admit. New life is growing between the cracks in the corporate edifice, and it’s spreading like a weed."

Too late to be doing this. Must go drink coffee, wait for morning...