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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>…</b>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>SR Ballard via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] list intimidation<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…"Pleasantness" is an external evaluation. So if you act pleasant (even if this is counter to your internal experience), then you will be evaluated as pleasant. Acting pleasantly can't "cause one to become an actual pleasant person" because they're already pleasant… SR<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hmm. Sounds like you don’t buy the whole fake-it-till-you-make-it theory.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>But your contention gives me an idea. What if… we all have genuine human kindness within us, but suppress it most of the time, flatly refusing to express it. Example, Melvin Udall was a perfect asshole, until Carol Conolly happened to him. She made him want to be a better man. It was hard work for him, but he made it (after a clumsy hilarious fashion.) Of course that was fiction, but hell, this thread is pointing out what we are: we are all fiction. We exist only in our own minds.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>