[ExI] playing psychologist

[David Lubkin]

John Clark wrote:

>At one time I was very big on Privately Produced 
>Law and Private Protection Agencies and I still 
>think if we were starting from scratch that 
>would be a much better direction to go than 
>where we are now, but the trouble is we are very 
>far from starting from scratch and once a 
>standard has been established its extremely 
>difficult to change it. There is almost no 
>chance of completing such a radical change 
>before the Singularity and without copious 
>amounts of blood flowing in the streets. So like 
>it or not we're pretty much stuck with the 
>nation state system. Due to the vast amounts of 
>legacy software we can't switch to a brand new 
>operating system at this late date, so all we 
>can do now is slap on the newest patch when 
>things crash and hope for the best.

I'm in the pragmatist column. I look at what has 
to be done in what order, what can be 
accomplished in today's realities, and how 
important a facet is. I don't fight every fight. 
And I'm okay with achieving "less bad" over not achieving anything.

I also think meta.

It seems to me that if you're hostile or uncivil 
to people, they stop listening. So nearly 
everywhere I am, and certainly everywhere I 
manage, the first rule is to encourage people to 
engage with each other with civility and the absence of hostility.

*Then*, once they're listening to each other (or 
to me), encourage rational, evidence-based, rigorous discussion.

Only then do I think there's a chance of 
persuading others or achieving working answers, 
especially on controversial matters.

(And I suddenly realize that this is an analog to 
a point Perry Metzger made decades ago—the 
farther your ideas are from the norm, the more 
important it is to couch it in a respectable, 
non-threatening fashion. He'd meant get a 
haircut, dress respectably, and speak grammatical 
English, but it may be even more important online.)

Without those two antecedents, it's just a waste 
of everyone's time. Some participants may get off on their self-righteousness.


-- David.