From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kim Jones
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 1:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: American Intelligence
On 25 Jun 2014, at 5:58 am, LizR <[email protected]> wrote:
I assumed Kim's original post was intended partly ironically. Clearly there are
a lot of intelligent Americans, but there does seem to be a bit of a "dumbed
down" culture there at times.
My original post was only apparently about Americans and their negative
qualities. That was just some content by which to,articulate the main purpose
of the thread: a demonstration of "provocation" which is a known thinking
skill.
As Liz pointed out – a quite convenient post facto position to take… for you.
But okay… I’ll take you at your word and assume that this is a clever little
online lab experiment you have going on here… by the way does that make us all
lab rats?
You can be as "racist" as you want, just as long as the observations made are
positive ones, which nobody feels hurt, rather flattered by; particularly if
they happen to be American. I am showing the diference between real thinking,
which is a emtal operation performed independently of one's personal values,
and perception which is where we articulate our values and hence talk largely
about ourselves and not the subject.
The prejudicial heaping of praise upon some group becomes as obnoxious over
time as prejudicial disparagement. It is the prejudicial mindset itself that is
offensive to reason; it is the abdication of reason for premade answers.
Naturally negative prejudice is going to elicit a more immediate response, but
this is due to its offensive nature. This does not however mean that therefore
people accept the prejudice of praise, especially people who do not belong to
the particular group that is benefitting from all the undeserved praise. But
even if one is a member of the group getting underserved flattery, suspicion
grows (in most healthy balanced minds at least) as to the underlying motive for
the stream of fawning praise. Suspicion of ass kissers is as far as I know an
almost universal shared cultural value.
You have all been misled by the content of the post, and not the process
embodied by the thinking, which is precisely what I expected would happen.
Thank you for turning a discussion into an argumemt complete with the usual ad
hominems and slanderous attacks. This is what happens when people place their
values in front of their thinking. This is what is known as "argument"; it is
the basis of most Western thinking and we are infected by it like a heliobactor
pylori bacterium that never goes away.
Thank you – assuming your are of your word – for turning us all into your lab
rats. Did we all sign a consent form; must have missed it. In the sixties
sometimes people used to slip acid into peoples drinks… they thought they were
manifesting enlightenment, but weren’t they rather more ethically challenged
than enlightened?
What you began was no discussion, but rather a rapid descent into prejudice
(for whatever motive you took it there). I am bewildered how you could see your
original act as anything other than a clear trajectory into a prejudicial
mindset, which you followed up on and expounded upon characterizing Americans –
who is that exactly? – as yahoos with a cowboy mindset who settle things by
shooting people – hard to define that as subtle or difficult to interpret in
any other way than ugly stereotyping (even if done for some occult experimental
intent). It was never turned into an argument; it began its existence as an act
designed to provoke argument, and you led it there.
If someone should slap someone across the face, it seems to me that they should
not be all that surprised if they, in turn get slapped back. Again, I believe
this is pretty commonly understood by people everywhere. even amongst
Christians who like to pretend they turn the other cheek (few practice that
tradition).
Chris
To learn to think properly, there is a need to forget entirely about the
importance of one's values and to concentrate on learning the PROCESS of
thinking. Real thinking can make use of any content at all. All that is
necessary is something to think about. The default tendency is for people to
polarise their opinions into,a "for" and an "against" which is the nadir of
true thinking. In true thinking there are a myriad points bewtween "yes" and
"no" and discovering them is what I call "creative thinking". You might have a
bunch of data that supports your stance about something, but by using a process
of creative thinking you might arrive at a different interpretation of that
data.
Ths is what Bruno does and why he qualifies to my mind as a highly gifted
creative thinker. He takes the existing ideas and runs a new filter over them
and comes up with a new way of seeing them.
It is true that we are all born creative and that this is the default state of
mind of the young child and that everything that happens from there on
"educates" us to be uncreative. The child is "Löbian" or self-referentially
correct. Adults rarely are.
Kim
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
