Girls Playing Rugby in Prom Dresses

[Kelly Jones]

Truth is the understanding of the root nerve of thinking. It is the willingness to disagree with whatever status quo, no matter the cost, when that status quo has become stale.

I'd be careful about interpreting truthful disagreement as being purely oppositional. Conventional politics is just gratuitous and unreasoned opposition.

If sagehood were ever a status quo, and the majority were as wise as could possibly be, only the unwise would try to disagree with wisdom. They wouldn't succeed in disagreeing, as they'd always be incorrect.

The understanding of the Absolute is never stale, unless it is not correct.

If one is looking for some way to pass time, and be entertained, then it would be better to check out why one is feeling bored.



This forum is not a place to hang out and socialise. It is a resource for people who seriously want to correct their own intellectual flaws. Thus, the only people here ought to be serious students, and those who are developed enough to help them reliably.

The American way of babysitting everyone via constant entertainment suppresses any real learning. I would suggest that the lonely hearts go away, and do a bit of private thinking.

If this occasions a feeling of hurt, please read my previous post above, on how to help yourself to grow and heal.

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[sschaula]

Good posts, Kelly.

This forum is not a place to hang out and socialise. It is a resource for people who seriously want to correct their own intellectual flaws. Thus, the only people here ought to be serious students, and those who are developed enough to help them reliably.

The American way of babysitting everyone via constant entertainment suppresses any real learning. I would suggest that the lonely hearts go away, and do a bit of private thinking.

If this occasions a feeling of hurt, please read my previous post above, on how to help yourself to grow and heal.

Since I'm a lonely heart, I'll go do some private thinking starting today. Probably take a week off of the boards or more. Good suggestions.

[Jason]

I think truth is something that can be spoken in the realms of any discussion, whether it concerns kids or work or politics or whatever else. I do not think it is necessary to discuss what passes for philosophy on this forum to hit on the elements of truth.

Your posts revolve around the psychological, social and political, but you completely miss the existential. If I were to say "Your entire life might be a dream or a hallucination.", how would you respond to that? Such fundamental existential issues underpin all the psychological, social and political, but you rarely if ever speak about them. I think psychololgical, social and political insights are very worthwhile, but they are not the end of the philosophical path.

[MKFaizi]

Jason wrote:

If I were to say "Your entire life might be a dream or a hallucination.", how would you respond to that?

I would say so what if my entire life might be a dream or hallucination? So what if it is? I still have to dream it or hallucinate it. I still have to work if I want to have a place to live and food to eat.

It would be nice if I could just change dream channels and dream some other kind of life. But reality does not work that way.

I could not care less about dreams or hallucinations. I could not care less about the anatomy of dreams or hallucinations. I have enough to deal with right here -- whether or not right here is a dream.

I have been alive for fifty three years and I have not awakened from the reality of reality.

Reality kind of sucks. It consists mainly of, "You're on your own, chump. Deal with it or bail out."

Good for you if you can escape it.

I cannot see that escapism has anything to do with philosophy or truth.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

Jason,

Please define existential in concrete, concise terms.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

Kelly wrote:

I'd be careful about interpreting truthful disagreement as being purely oppositional.

Thanks but I do understand that and I do not need your warning to be careful.

The one thing that purely bugs me about the wise sages around here is the condecension.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

Schular wrote:

Do you really think I believe that by the grace of David Quinn, I will achieve enlightenment?

Yes.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

David Quinn wrote:

She doesn't like it when people disagree with her. It drives her nuts.

Typical Quinnism. Eggs the little ones on.

"Come on. Let's gang up on her. Together, we can shut her up."

For the past few years, I have been passive. Well, I am fed up with being passive.

Faizi

[jmack]

Jason if you can answer that challenge, power to you, for even Ca mus and Satre eventually failed to do so, or rather to achieve the goal of the existential person, to create meaning in an aburb universe, and in creating meaning defining reality for the individual.


Of course they didn't create a reality that rose about the hard-wired reality carried in the genotype

[MKFaizi]

David Quinn wrote:

Needless to say, Marsha doesn't agree with this - and I agree with her.

Cute but not all that cute. You well know that I am not disagreeable for the sake of being disagreeable.

Faizi

[MKFaizi]

Kelly Jones wrote:

Something's harsh when it hurts. Feeling angry comes from psychological damage that hasn't been healed. There is no point in being harsh out of retaliation for being damaged.

Give it a break, Kelly. I am not in need of your platitudes. I am not writing in anger.

Talk about psychology.

Damn.

Faizi

[Kelly Jones]

When someone says, "Do whatever you like," I've always thought it sounds like, "Leave me alone".

I see psychology as repairing one's intellectual dysfunctionality. It is hard for an individual to do it, and hard on everyone else if they don't.

I think the core problem is an embarrassment about having problems.

A tabby kitten came exploring through my flat today. It had a lot of energy, was attentive, and explored everything intimately with virtually no fear. The kitten was not embarrassed about its curiosity. When the exploration was over, it was gone.

PS I'm taking a holiday for a few weeks. It's a way of helping the mind examine its foolishness in trying to "hold up the fort". Everyone else is so busy, it's up to me to have a supremely good holiday, to make up for it.



[/i]

[R. Steven Coyle]

Faizi writes:

Typical Quinnism. Eggs the little ones on.

"Come on. Let's gang up on her. Together, we can shut her up."

For the past few years, I have been passive. Well, I am fed up with being passive.

I often look to your opinion as the voice of reason. But when you continually scream and run around, that's when I think to myself, "Damn, Faizi. Damn."

[jmack]

A tabby kitten came exploring through my flat today. It had a lot of energy, was attentive, and explored everything intimately with virtually no fear. The kitten was not embarrassed about its curiosity. When the exploration was over, it was gone.

[/i]

Our kitten has outgorwn kittenhood and entered motherhood. And with that state has developed an instinctive wariness that only a proper predator can develop. It still hasn't developed the proper gratitude to those humans it owns like its companion a black cat named mel after the actor. Mel Gibson McCat leaves us proper ritual sacrifices of squirrels, mockingbirds and an occasional mole. Lucy the mother cat, who despite being three years old is the size of a six-month kitten reminds me of a proper philosopher. Between bouts of estrus, which she pretends to hate with a passion, she keeps to herself and says eff the world.

[R. Steven Coyle]

Oh, jmack.

[David Quinn]

Marsha Faizi wrote:

avidaloca: I think Marsha is pretty honest and for the topics she discusses, I see truth in her observations.

DQ: Needless to say, Marsha doesn't agree with this - and I agree with her.

MF: Cute but not all that cute. You well know that I am not disagreeable for the sake of being disagreeable.

So when you wrote a few posts earlier that, "I completely disagree with all of you", we are supposed to accept it as just another piece of absurdist hyperbole from your drama-spinning keyboard?


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[MKFaizi]

I don't care what you or your doggies do.

I disagree with you. I do not disagree only for the sake of disagreeing.

David Quinn wrote:

we are supposed to accept it as just another piece of absurdist hyperbole from your drama-spinning keyboard?

Interesting that you use the word we. Group-think.

I have not spun drama. I have spoken truth and I will not back down from that.

Interesting that your own drama spinning keyboard kind of sounds like the baying of hounds.

I think that you will meet resistance. Not from those coming to my defense but from those willing to point out your delusion.

Worldly matters, my ass.

Faizi

[avidaloca]

I saw it called "The Lower House" for a while before I reloaded the page to see "Worldy Matters".

[David Quinn]

I like "General Discussion" best.

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[David Quinn]

Marsha,

DQ: So when you wrote a few posts earlier that, "I completely disagree with all of you", we are supposed to accept it as just another piece of absurdist hyperbole from your drama-spinning keyboard?

MF: Interesting that you use the word we. Group-think.

Well, you did say, "I completely disagree with all of you", so you had already created the "we" bit with your disrespectful and absurdist grouping of everyone on this thread into the same basket.

I think we should analyse this concept of "group-think", since it seems to dominate your thinking so much. Do you believe that any kind of agreement between individuals automatically constitutes "group-think? Are there any exceptions?

I have not spun drama. I have spoken truth and I will not back down from that.

Are you now saying that your statement, "I completely disagree with all of you", is true, after all? It isn't absurdist hyperbole?

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[Blair]

I have not spun drama. I have spoken truth and I will not back down from that.

You seem to be fairly honest, and speak the truth, but it is only in the context of your reality. I don't find anything much of value in what you say, since I can make the same observations at any point in time, about this and that.

What Quinn says is different, it's coming from as purely objective place as I can currently percieve. If that makes me a "lackey", a "doggie" or other such labels you are hurling out, then so be it. It seems like an extraordinary waste of energy on your part to try and overthrow whatever it is you are trying to circumvent.

I get the impression that no matter what this forum was labelled, you wouldnt like it.

[Kevin Solway]

I like "General Discussion" best.

I figured that "General Discussion" was too general a description, since it covers literally everything.

Currently it is called "Wordly matters".

So what do you think of the following titles.

"Sub-standard material"?

"The material world"

"The lesser lights"

[Greg Shantz]

I like them all! :-)

[David Quinn]

The problem is, Marsha will only get on her hobby horse and flood the forum with complaints about how such and such a post has been shafted down to "The Material World" or "The Lesser Lights". Those sorts of names inflame her ego too much, as happened with "The Brothel".

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[David Quinn]

Having said that, "Sub-standard material" appeals to my sense of perversity, so I would plum for that one if you want to go that route.

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