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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (5019)	2/6/2001 4:08:32 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 82486

To pattern my argument after yours I am pro-life because I believe that socieities that respect the rights of all people and care about the weak and the defenceless are more pleasant. The point of this (perhaps we can skip the whole game and just talk about the point), is that to me the central question about abortion is what you consider a fetus to be, is it a child, a human life, or is it a blob of unimportant cells or is it inbetween. Tim, you are within a millimeter of the light bulb going off. I've put a lot of energy into this discussion so I'm going to try once again to move you that millimeter. Remember, I'm not trying to talk you out of your position on abortion nor am I trying to get you to abandon your truth about it. All I'm trying to do is to evoke an understanding of the salient difference between those who operate off an extrinsic truth and those whose truths are their own invention. Steven's truths and values and assumptions and priorities and all that stuff are his. He owns them. He may hold them in common with a lot of other people but they're still his to do with as he pleases. He can change them any time he gets some new input that causes him to reassess because he made them up in the first place. It is theoretically possible for me to change his mind about something with new evidence and/or a rational argument. You speak about the relative priorities you put on things. You own your priorities; they are yours to change. But, unlike Steven, you have at least one extrinsic or absolute truth. This truth is bigger than you. It comes from someplace beyond your grey cells, maybe a deity, maybe not. You believe it, you accept it, but you don't own it. There's not even a theoretical possibility of my ever affecting your thinking about your truth. You don't have the authority to make changes; only your source for the truth, its owner, can amend it. I'm OK; you're OK. Who is right and who is wrong isn't the point. My point is only that we all live on this planet together. One group wants to find a consensus. The other group doesn't have the flexibility to operate in a consensus environment. Steven can't convince you because you can't budge on your truth. You can't convince Steven because you have no rational basis to present to him. That, IMO, is why we talk past each other. Karen