shlomozalman…why are you so against CC…have you had a bad experience??? as you should have seen chofetz chaim is like slabodka in many regards, it may not be perfect but it is close enough. asking what the alter would do simply means that we should filter our actions through a filter of mussar and yashrus. not everything that is mutar and legal should be done, simply because it is not YOSHER. its not an abstract question…it is a very practical one. if you are well grounded in the principles of mussar, you will be able to decide what is yosher and what isnt. i believe chofetzchaim posted above that we should think “what would this look like on the front page of the times” simply put…what do you think it would look like. true it may be technically allowed…but should you still do it? i see no reason not to think like that! if everyone thought like that we would have fewer problems in this world.
as for our supposed “inferiority complex”…it is no such thing. each yeshiva has things it is proud of, and we are proud of our set up. ie…our similarities to slabodka that is rarley if ever seen these days. what i mean to say is you rarely if ever see a yeshiva that has a clear mesorah, a clear derech in mussar and hashkafa. as for lakewood not allowing us into their elite club…whatever that means…ask yourself this question, is that mussardik??? is it mussardik to exclude a large group of jews from your world because they are from a different yeshiva? in chofetz chaim the answer is no…maybe by you the answer is yes, and that is sad.
as for the only place to learn how to learn. there are many yeshivos that dont have a set specific derech halimud. in many places, each rebbi chooses what he wants to do based on whim…or what he did when he was in yeshiva…we have a clear derech halimud, and therefore one can learn how to learn. how can you learn how to learn if the way to learn isnt clear?
i have been saying through all these posts that the purpose of me defending and pushing CC like this is only in response to all the bashing, this is not a plug for whynotme to remain in CC against his will.