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To: TimF who wrote (11956)	5/3/2002 6:52:35 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21057

"The useage of the word implies that it always or at least almost always is." How do you feel about "fear of death." This seems to me to be a much more common issue in our culture. I am not afraid of death. It is inevitable that I will die and I consider that a positive out come of a life worth living. I can understand some person's reasons for fearing death. Rarely have I heard a person say they fear God's judgement and are afraid to face that. I suspect some people are afraid because death represents some "great unknown" and some people fear anything they don't understand. Not too many people have actually defined this as the source of their fear. It seems, however, that the vast majority of people in our culture do have a fear of death since most people tell me that they believe it is normal to fear death. So in the absense of a clear explanation for that, I have to determine that it is an "irrational fear" that impacts their courses of life in a big way. I have tried to bring this up as a topic before and not gotten any place because most of the dialogue is focused on a disbelief that I would not fear death.

To: TimF who wrote (11956)	5/10/2002 1:55:56 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

"it doesn't stop you from coming to conclusions about their character and motivations" People of extremist viewpoints declare themselves by very overt actions and words. It is not necessary that one be a licensed psychoanalyst in order to correctly use common words such as homophobia, meandering, augmentation, or pulchritude. I'm sure we could all act confused over "agoraphobia", too. (abnormal fear of being helpless in an embarrassing or unescapable situation that is characterized especially by the avoidance of open or public places). We could voice our objection to the fear being described as "abnormal". We could say we agree with "unescapable" but that "embarassing" is puzzling and misleading. And on and on. But it would probably only alert others to the fact that we had a hidden agenda. "It is probably an important motivation for a number of people in this group but it would not be the only or main motivation for all of them." Not all that relevant. The etymological roots of words do not necessarily or even commonly depict modern derivative meanings. People know that homophobia refers to irrational and ugly ideas and behaviour toward gays. The etymological history of a word is largely irrelevant to being able to use it correctly and appropriately. "Does that indicate that homosexuals are a legitimate target of hatred, and that therefore you are not sure whether a word is needed to describe the hate? No. Is that why you are not sure whether such a word is needed? No. Hmmm....but you are still "not sure". The only other explanation I can think of for your being "not sure" would be that you don't think they are discriminated against or irrationally hated, or, if they are, that it ought not to be remarked upon. I certainly thought my questions as to why you were "not sure" covered reasonable inferences. However, your curt responses indicate to me that your uncertainty is a private matter, so I will leave it at that.