[b said:
Quote[/b] (Mokele @ May 28 2006,11:10)]See above about armchair psychology; the short version is that it's inevitably wrong.
What I personally find amusing is that 4 pages back I'm being congratulated, whereas now that I've dared mention that I both enjoy debate and consider logical debate be a vital skill and indication of true intellect (a horrific idea advocated by petty rabble-rousers like Socrates, Plato, Hegel and Kant), I'm considered a troll.
I still congratulate you and agree with you on most of your points, including the ones about debate. I like to think I've demonstrated to the forum over the years (to their dismay) that I absolutely value what's logically, philosophically, epistemologically sound, so I don't think I'm your opposition here. Usually I was suggesting people were being thin-skinned about debate too.
But I've learned (and am still getting through my thick skull) that being in "battle mode" in excess, as empowering as it feels, is often a good way to get in one's own way, if self-expansion is one's ultimate goal.
I spent a lot of time focusing on just how utterly
wrong the world seemed to be about so many things, getting to the point where I'd be struck with the overpowering urge to fix anyone in my path displaying fallacious thinking. Like it was some sort of duty I had to rise to. And all it served to do was alienate me from people who had gifts for me that I wasn't aware I needed to receive. Caused me to reject valuable information just because it wasn't communicated to me in my rigid lexicon.
I was so in love with that hard-won 0.00000000001% that I
knew about the universe that it pulled my attention away from the massive, glorious remainder left to discover ... most of which would probably come to me in forms I never thought I'd value at first (the medium sometimes being worth more than the message).
I don't know you from Adam, and I'm well aware that this may not apply to you at all (in fact 3/4ths of it is just me going into rant mode without even having you particularly in mind). I'm pretty sure you'll even find it silly and trite, which is fine by me. I just felt the need to put it out there.
To summarize what I want to get across here: it's helpful to relax.