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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (22448)	9/4/2005 6:01:28 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

"I don't take any difference between that and actually addending the alias of someone you don't know and who is directly receiving your post. " When you say you hate ice cream, or Elvis, or school prayer, you aren't attacking everyone who loves it. That people may love what I despise is a given for me (since I'm a relativist, I can even understand why they do.) That others may infer there is an attack upon the person, or even the alias of a person, when there isn't one IN the statement is sad, but little can be done about it, and, imo, to all rational people phrasing will make a difference, since it does actually mean something different, and actual attacks will be distinguished from non-attacks. Irrational people will be irrational no matter what, so I don't see much that can be done with them. If people confuse strong opinions about ice cream, or politics, for personal attacks on themselves, then that's really their problem, not mine- and they (of course) can vent about it, but it's so illogical, I wouldn't want them doing it around me. We will obviously continue to completely disagree on this. And re venting- since there are people who make a career out of venting on SI, I'm never going to agree with you that it's not a good thing to be able to ban them. They can vent all over the place, as there are plenty of outlets, but they don't have to be able to vent everywhere. And I have to say that the permanent vent communities on SI, are a bit like the vent communities on the ocean floor...known as the black smokers... (which are, if I remember correctly, full of hot gasses, sulphur and noxious compounds, although some organisms learn to survive there, and actually adapt to such surroundings, to the point that they could not function anywhere else...such is the diversity of life, metaphorically and philosophically)

To: Solon who wrote (22448)	9/4/2005 6:11:27 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

Let's try to separate the many points in your post- which was full of good things to discuss (if you wouldn't mind) and deal with just this one issue: "I DO think that circumstances allow people to express their feelings and values more honestly on a BB than at their work." Would you agree that you can express feelings and values without attacking someone else? If you can agree to that, would you agree that if you want another person to actually pay attention to your feelings and values you had better express them politely, or at least not in attack mode? A therapist might listen to someone in attack mode, and pay attention (maybe, they are at least being paid) and a family member might if they loved the person in question, but no one else is going to pay attention to a person who is having a hissy fit. What you pay attention to is the fit, not the substance of it. So, unless you are just suggesting that the net is a place for therapy (and it may very well be, but then that leads me to say that it isn't my obligation to play therapist for everyone who wants to vent), then successful transmission of feelings and values probably requires a little self control. Let's try to hammer out where we disagree on this one small issue.