From: "psypher" <overload@fastmail.ca> Subject: Re: virus: Will and Force ? To: virus@lucifer.com Date sent: Thu, 20 May 1999 22:55:52 -0400 (EDT) Send reply to: virus@lucifer.com
>
No, I got your point and rejected it. You stated that a gump's
contributions were AS important to the species as a whole as
those I mentioned; I, quite correctly, maintain not. Of course
magnanimity is positive, but a real-life Forrest Gump's contributions
are not on the same level as those of a Nelson Mandela (himself a
lawyer) or a Vaclev Havel (philosopher, novelist and playwright).
Contrary to the desires of some leveling equalizers, some people's
contributions ARE INDEED more important to the species as a
whole than those of others, and I listed some of the more important
ones. BTW, Gandhi earned a Doctorate of Law and Tutu a
Doctorate of Divinity. Mother Theresa was a figurehead who
accepted money from Haiti's Baby Doc Duvalier and fomented antiabortion
violence in the US (Quote: "If you want peace, fight
against abortion.") in obesiance to the hardline Pope John Paul II
has hewn.
>
> ...again, you have missed the point entirely. You have cited a list
> of [admittedly valuable and impressive] contributions to humyn
> understanding.
> ...someone who doesn't know squat about any of the things you list
> but has a knack for communicating with children, say, can make a
> phenomenal, lasting and valuable contribution to the species, to an
> individual, to the world at large.
> ...I had hoped to avoid stooping to citing obvious and trite
> examples, but I doubt very much whether Mohandas Gandhi, Mother
> Theresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu or any of a countless number of well-
> known contributors to the social whole. I know for certain that any
> number of people never written about in the history books, never
> trained in academic disciplines and never cited in peer-reviewed
> publications have made vast and hugely significant contributions in
> all sorts of areas.
> ...a person with an 80 IQ or whatever other packaged and quantified
> aspect of consciousness you care to name can act as teacher, mentor
> or inspiration.
> ...you obviously have a disciplined and well-ordered mind, why do you
> feel the need to raise your amply demonstrated capacities above those
> of other people?
>
> -psypher
>
> > Forrest Gump might be a "good guy", but it's highly unlikely that a
> > real gump (lacking gumption) would have such a life, or would
> > develop the calculus (integral or differential), or relativity
> theory
> > (special or general), or complexity theory, or the uncertainty
> > principle, or the undecideability theorems I or II, or fuzzy logic,
> > or phenomenology, or structuralism, or genetic epistemology, or
> > hermeneutics, or semiotics, or memetics, any of which contribute
> > substantially more to the species as a whole than any chocolate
> > box park bench "philosophizing" by a kind and good-natured nitwit.
> > I mentioned my experience with the test to show that I knew
> > whereof I spoke concerning it. Your need to engage in sour
> > grapish reverse snobbery about it in your response speaks volumes.
>
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