From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Jan 03 2003 - 09:57:44 MST
Eugen writes
> > It is true that (a) when many people become frustrated or
> > run out of energy, the temptation to take easy personal
>
> I'm not frustrated. Ron has made my killfile a while ago.
The ultimate insult; by the way, why tell people if
you don't read their stuff? What possible use is it
except as a put down?
> The only way I see his stuff is by proxy of other
> posters, and this is what I commented on.
But it was not about the *content* that you commented
upon. It was upon his *suitability* to be on such an
elite list [giggle]. You have no idea how this kind
of attitude strikes me, but then maybe that's just
because I was raised in the western U.S., am quite
the provincial, and react badly to elitism or
arrogance.
> Because I'm honestly missing the point of why a
> person with Ron's background and Ron's beliefs
> would find this list worthwhile.
I think that he cleared that up for you. But, as
you know, it takes all kinds. If I have learned
anything, it's that there is no accounting for taste.
> He might be not with Sauron, but he's certainly
> with Isengard.
Oh, right.
> He isn't naive. He's just with the enemy.
Yes, and now finally I know for sure why you were
on my case last summer---I hadn't yet pegged you
ideologically. I too am with the enemy, a sort
of person who holds a world view not politically
correct by your lights. You have no idea how
narrow and polarized that attitude strikes me.
[Eugen changes the subject here back to the thread]
> > I was greatly enjoying Ron's and Harvey's exchanges
> > about "secret evidence". It was about 95% actual content
> I don't need any extra evidence for secret evidence.
> Some pretty scary stuff passes several times a day
> through my inbox. Anyone who engages Google for a
> few minutes can't miss it, unless he's not engaging
> Google, or wears rather selective blinders.
Ah, there you've got it. We all wear selective blinders
in alignment with our ideological filters. To me, who
especially during the last year and a half has been
considering the U.S. more or less (less actually) at
war, these reports struck me as mostly whining from
my usual ideological adversaries (I do not refer to
them as "the enemy"). A conservative American administration
was cracking down on foreign terrorists and not observing
the usual niceties. As I say, I profited greatly from
Harvey's and Ron's exchange, because it helped explain to
me more aspects of the fine line, and provoked thought
about what really is appropriate in these times.
I have further theories involving polarization (that, at
least to me are pretty obvious) and the way that leftists
will tend to focus on threats from the right and vice-versa,
each believing, with some justification, that their opposite
numbers are watching the other front. But perhaps more
about that at some other time. Most people on this list
don't even admit that they have their own biases, but,
(I guess) believe that they possess by accident of nature
the acme of objective and rational thought process.
Lee
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