Silence is complicity, as the saying goes.
You present your views as though they are views that everyone should share and that, if someone doesn't share them, they either just don't understand (as in what you said below to Jane), or they are just plain unenlightened. It is fine that you hold your views, Allan. Listen, also, however, to those who have made the choice to speak out, or to step forward, and respect them for their choices.
In my profession, the party line is to support people/clients/patients taking psychotropic medications. I absolutely disagree with that, 99% of the time. It is not politically correct to disagree with the party line, but I do, and everyone knows it, I suffer a bit in lowered popularity with traditional colleagues, but I've always had a thriving practice. I'm also an insurance provider, and the utilization review clinicians know how I feel about psychotropic meds. I don't talk about the issue in radical ways with those folk, but I don't conceal my views at all.
I do believe that now, more than ever, it is essential to stand up for one's beliefs, to talk respectfully with others about those beliefs, and to try to change the avalanche of unconsciousness. Otherwise, one's life is this secret, hidden, fear-ridden event.
Best to you,
Essie
At 02:45 PM 01/20/2003 -0500, you wrote:
No offense, Jane, but such considerations hold little water in many ares of the country where jobs are at a premium. One accepts that one must make compromises and work with people who one would not, for example, live with. The secret to survival, of course, is to keep your ideas to yourself. (Or, as I found out at one good paying job a dozen years back, keep you lunch to yourself! At that time seaweed filled miso soup was enough to cause problems among the middle Americans.))Is it possible that if potential employers would hold your personal beliefs and interests/hobbies against you that perhaps you wouldn't want to work for such people? And if they would use such measures as checking you out in a search engine and then judging you on such information instead of your merits as a scientist, then perhaps they would not be a good employer?Just my two cents, Jane S.
Me thinks, Jane, per chance you have no idea what the rest of us go through.
For you non-US folks, you probably have no idea of the level of total conformity that's expected here in the states.
-Allan
