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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (140230)	7/14/2004 9:33:06 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If they move it to Sept then I can be there...I like your theory on "No". I guess I should have been clear that I was only talking about getting a no answer to something that you'd want a "yes". As to the state of the general public...It has been my experience that by and large most people would rather do anything than to think (I think Bertrand Russell would agree; "Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so"). This is evidenced by the success of all the bite size info bits and simple minded talk that is delivered everyday. It is not because people cannot think; it is that they don't want to, perhaps for the same reasons that they don't want to exercise twice a day. In addition, even those who are thinkers, often have a hard time seeing reality for what it is. This subject has been extensively discussed in much of Buddhist literature. One problem is that reality is often complex and multifaceted. So to save time (and headache) we digitize it into big chunks in forms of "words" and abstract phrases/concepts. Unfortunately the words are then confused with their meanings (hence the power of Orwellian Doublespeak). Abraham Lincoln understood this well, which attests to his genius. He used to ask his companions that if we all agree to call a dog's tail "leg", then how many legs does a dog have? [What do you think the answer is?] By and large they would answer 5, to which Abe would reply, "No still only 4; calling a tail a leg does not make it so".