Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Angler who wrote (9337)	1/12/2002 1:58:51 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93284

I said "Gentility and Kindness" with tongue in cheek. Thanks, I missed that. Today we are all caring, but then we didn't give a s--t so the new history proclaims What I would say is that we all like to believe that we're caring. It's a favorable quality to have. We don't like to have the characteristic of stingy SOBs; so we don't believe that. We believe what our personal value system tells us to believe and refuse to believe what conflicts with it. The stronger the specific "value" the more rigid we tend to be. In politics. If one believes that politician X is bad [a specific value], then they will believe every negative story about that candidate, regardless of it's accuracy. Any positive story about that candidate will be denied as accurate. The facts don't matter. It's how does that story fits into our value system. I've noticed on frequent occasions that I can query a person on their opinions [value system] and discern values that conflict. If I continue to pursue the line, probing on how the person reconciles the conflict I can virtually guarantee that the individual will become quite angry and never acknowledge that any conflict exists. [Never do this with a friend.]. Find someone that had the value a year ago, "The US cannot be the policeman of the world." Play that value back to them today. They are not likely to say they were wrong, but they are very likely to get ticked off, if you pursue it. Part of our value system is to not be wrong...ever. Remembering friends and acquaintances snuffed out and mourned without fanfare in private during those "conflicts" (no overall media sensitivity), it is hard for me to understand how we have come to this changed viewpoint so quickly. As soon as you figure that one out, please let me know. Perhaps one component is de-sensitization and a weakness in assessing reality from fantasy. The video game people say that in the near future, it will be possible to distribute a shoot-em-up video game that will be visually indistinguishable from a reality, i.e., blood, torn and burnt tissue, severed limbs, etc.. After that, how will you shock the senses of the public when it comes to the real thing? We've also grown to draw very thin lines as to when we care and when we don't. We don't tend to care much about Sub-Sahara Africa [estimated death toll from AIDS so far this year is 660,000; 12 days into the year!]. They are far away and not Americans [or whatever the excuse.] Mexican illegals locked in a truck in Arizona...that's in Arizona and I'm in New York [or whatever] and they aren't Americans anyway. The lines are very thin, across an ocean, the border of a State, the incorporated limits of a city; all rather arbitrary when it comes to the value of human life. It seems that we only care for any length of time under the condition of personnally witnessing the event. jttmab