[extropy-chat] My Posting Replies

[The Avantguardian]

--- david stiger <stiger420 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> First of all let me say that I am sorry to have
> offended some of you by 
> asking these questions, and I am also sorry to learn
> that so many of you 
> cannot live with the fact that I believe there is
> some kind of larger "shall 
> we call it conspiracy" having to do with the masons
> and the leaders of 
> religious groups and government officials all over
> our planet. 

I am not offended and I am sorry if anything I said to
address your theory was cosindered offensive to you. I
am perfectly happy to allow you to believe your
conspiracy theories. I am just one of those people
that try very hard to distinguish between the faces I
see in clouds with the faces I see on Mt. Rushmore.
Our brains are keyed to recognize patterns of
information, even when those patterns are accidents of
chance.

 I did  not 
> inted to come off as someone trying to push my
> ideas, just as someone who 
> wanted to hear the opinions of people who seem to
> have a great knowledge of 
> the world.  I know now that even people who are
> supposedly open to 
> discussing the big problems and issues of our
> planet, can also be very close 
> minded.

Close mindedness is a bugbear of the human condition
that goes way beyond this list. Much of the death and
destruction in the world of late is due to it.

> I will continue to read the extropy chat
> list, but I believe you 
> suceeded in convincing me that posting about
> anything other than 
> hard-fact-based issues is something many of you just
> can't seem to handle.

Many but not all.
  
> I thought it would make for an interesting
> discussion, but I guess not.  
> Thanks to those of you who only tried to answer my
> questions and did not 
> immediately criticize my views, I appreciate
> tolerance in all it's forms.

Well I for one would advise you to develop a thicker
skin toward criticism. Even correct ideas and smart
talented people get criticized. The true test of an
idea or a person is that they can withstand that
criticism. I would suggest you examine your theories
and why you hold them. You don't need a conspiracy of
thousands to explain all the suffering and injustice
in the world, you just need individuals acting in
callous self-interest. For example, why would you need
to think that Bush was a member of some secret society
in order to cause all the misery he has? Because it
easier to believe in an evil club than than an evil
individual? Or do you believe that belonging to the
Masons somehow gives Bush more power than he would
have without it? If that is the case, how come there
are Masons that have trouble making rent? 

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson


		
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