Re: OT Associated Press covers endangered languages

In article <9ut0f3dre360adtkf0d78ek68vb1m4i3v4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Padraic Brown
<elemtilas@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:37:30 -0400, "X. Rayburn" <none@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 
> >http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_re_us/endangered_languages
> >
> >Here is a thought that crosses my mind sometimes: Maybe it would be
> >more honorable to use one's linguistic skills to help keep one of these
> >endangered languages alive, rather than making up half-baked languages
> >that no one will ever speak.
> 
> Curious:
> 
> Have you _ever_ entered a music oriented newsgroup and similarly
> dismissively enjoined piano or clarinet players to "more honourably"
> use their musical skills to learn and preserve ancient and fading
> musics from around the world? 

My remarks are not anti-glossopoeic. I am a conlanger. (I post here
under a pseudonym so that I can explore controversial topics without
having peoples opinions of my conlangs be colored by any philosphical
differences that are uncovered here.)

Can you honestly say you have never had doubts about the worthwhileness
of conlanging? Never said to yourself something like, "my tendency to
make lists of things could better be used in managing an investment
****tfolio or screening potential anti-cancer drugs"?? I often have such
doubts. Likewise, when I consider lending sup****t to efforts to keep
Volapük or Ido alive, I think to myself, why not Lakota or Muskogee
instead.

Is no one else man enough to admit having such questions?