A Cry for Help

Dear Mr. Mclaren-

It is one thing when a reasonably sane person has a cruel streak and
indulges it by trying to hurt others. In such a case, one can feel regret
for the hurt they may cause. If this were the case here, I would feel
concern for the hurt that you could have caused to many people on this list.
Fortunately (for them) this is not the case here. I doubt if anything you
have said has hurt anyone here because you are obviously so unhinged and in
such mental pain that your words have nothing to do with the people you are
supposedly addressing, and are really nothing but a cry for help. I do not
know you or how you have arrived in this sad state, so there's not much I
can do for you, except urge you to seek some help from some quarter,
professional, spiritual, or otherwise. You are obviously headed down a dark,
slippery slope which will bring suffering to noone but yourself in the long
run. It is unfortunate because some of what you say in the few posts where
you actually discuss music is of interest. You must tend to judge yourself
very harshly for some reason, and then you project this judgment randomly
and illogically at whoever happens to be in front of you. This much would be
obvious to you if you could attain to any objectivity when it comes to your
behavior. I am sorry to speak so bluntly, but your posts have long since
gone over the line from being mearly quirky and curmudgeonly to being
blatantly pathological. Perhaps you see yourself as a purveyor of "tough
love", hoping to inspire others to produce more music. If this is the case I
don't think your approach will work very well, and besides too much of what
you write is gratuitously insulting and cannot even pretend to be inspiring.
If you want to encourage people, simple encouragement will probably work
better. I am well aware that you will probably now turn your firehose of
vitriol in my general direction, but all I can assure you of is that I am
well aware of where it is really pointed and so I recommend that you not
bother. You have already shot yourself in the foot what seems to be a record
number of times, so perhaps you should give it a rest.

Dante