Henry Kissinger famously said: "Academic politics is so vicious because so little is at stake."
This discussion strikes me in much the same way - we seem to be getting worked up over what is basically a frivolous pursuit. It also mirrors (imperfectly) some of what one sees in politics. Recently, there was an interesting article about the tendency of humans to be suspicious and how this translates to a tendency for politicians to be overly hawkish with predictable results. You can read more about that here: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3660 The analogy to audio is as follows: 1)People are passionate about audio which is a good thing. But we shouldn't take it too seriously. We can have this discussion and still remain civil. I'd suggest that people refrain from the name calling that I've seen in other threads. 2)As in politics, the tendency to be skeptical seems to be very ingrained. Additionally, deeply ingrained psychological tendencies often lead to misunderstandings and further polarization. The following quote seemed quite relevant: "the tendency of both sides of a dispute to view themselves as reacting to the others provocative behavior is a familiar feature of marital quarrels, and it is found as well in international conflicts." And I'd add it seems to be found in audio discussions as well. I believe that web based discussions make things even worse. Comments that one writes may seem innocuous but often sound overly harsh when read by a 3rd party. My point in all this is to say that when someone makes subjectivist statements it is not meant as a provocation to the objectivists. And the reverse is equally true. My reason for starting this thread was not to censor anyone. It was more a request for a bit of self control on the part of the objectivist crowd so that those of us who aren't quite as dogmatic in our beliefs can have discussions on subjective topics without the discussion getting derailed. What do you say? ---Gary -- GaryB ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GaryB's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3169 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32352
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