Etiquette Is Dead

The staff bases its position on two major grounds: the practical and the conventional. Both are flawed.

First, to the practical argument. While the staff rightly observes that the steady delivery of mass mailings similar to Simons' could slow the exchange of information over the Harvard server and clutter student e-mailboxes, it undermines its own logic by conceding that filters could be put in place to restrain mass mailings. Claims that the "legitimate" user would somehow be punished by such a program are specious at best.

Second, to the wistful argument of etiquette. This subject has been settled in the United States for decades. Manners are dead. Men who hold doors for women are few. Youngsters who venerate the elderly are a rare find. Lovers who engage in extended foreplay before intercourse are true gems.

Internet etiquette seems to imply that one should be able to transmit and receive pornography, yet be free from "offensive" solicitations to a campus concert. How disingenuous.