There is an unstated insinuation to this conversation that I'd like to address: namely, that if you aren't contributing a voice card, then you aren't participating. I disagree.

In my Archipelagoan experience, I note that sometimes I read an ongoing argument like this Dick and Jane thing and follow the curves of the various arguments and voice cards passionately, but I am not moved to send a voice card of my own. Is that bad? The voice cards are stimulating to me and make me chew on ideas I hadn't entertained before (John and Larry's discussion of I.Q. for example). Is it so bad that I don't join the fray?

It seems to me that, sometimes at least, just being stirred into silent reflection by something seems enough. Ye Gads, if one were moved to externalize a response to every newspaper editorial, every movie, every poem or novel or whatever opinion one encounters, precious little would get done.

And so I give you Stuie's Theorem: Because I am silent on a particular Archipeloan discussion or matter doesn't mean that I'm not engaged in it.