Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx> wrote: At 04:57 PM 6/8/2006, you wrote: >When you talk about yourself it's not in the context of defending >yourself. I don't mind talking about myself, but I won't be forced into >it as a way of distracting attention because somebody else's position is >fundamentally flawed. Okay only questions from now on -- I can't tell you anything ever again ever. 1) Why is my position (as an optimist) fundamentally flawed? A.A. Not the optimism, the conviction about the animal inferiority, i.e., the hubris. But since you insist on talking about optimism, what's the optimism all about? On an individual level optimism might be fine, but as a species we're faced with global warming of our own creation; we're entering the post antibiotic age, which, due to corporate greed in not wanting to research new antibiotics, will be in full bloom in the not too distant future; things are getting worse and worse in the ME; human depravity is the same as it's ever been; the country is flat out broke; and on and on. Personal life excepted, what are you so optimistic about? Regarding the hubris about human superiority and animal inferiority, we'll just assume that is your belief and let it go at that. 2) Why would I -- a person who is more than forethright -- try to distract attention from my fundamentally flawed position? In other words, "what's my MO?" A.A. We seem to go round and round the same issues. I'm on one side, you're on another, whether it's spanking, pharma, doesn't matter. I don't see the point in continuing. 3) Can you explain how you can come to two fundamentally opposite conclusions using the same logic? for example: deaf [from birth] people can't think meaningfully because they have no language and animals can think meaningfully even though they have no language. A.A. Animals aren't deaf from birth. They are designed differently from humans. Their thinking is not our thinking. A deaf person's thinking is human but it's denied them because of lack of language. Apples/oranges. 4) Why do you persist in being a killjoy? A.A. Why do you persist in reading my posts? 5) What happened to make you this way? -- I ask so I can avoid becoming so painfully negative. A.A. Television, magazines, radio ... Mostly it bothers me that how backward the 21st century is. Truly, it's the New Middle Ages, amazing, stunning backwardness, superstition, war. paul ########## Paul Stone pas@xxxxxxxx Kingsville, ON, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com