--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > "I've always noticed that a good surprise punch > > in the solar plexus cures most solipsists of > > their naive belief that they create the universe > > all by themselves." > > > > (BTW, Barry has never actually met a solipsist, > > let alone punched one in the solar plexus.) > > BTW, Barry has. Both. It worked then > (on someone having a psychotic solipsistic > break and doing damage to himself and his > family)
The more I think about this, the more appalling it is. In the first place, this *single* encounter with a psychotic solipsist is what Barry uses to justify his claim above that he's "always noticed that a good surprise punch in the solar plexus cures most solipsists of their naive belief...." "ALWAYS noticed"--on the basis of one individual. "Cures MOST solipsists"--on the basis of one individual. Six separate boasts about how he hit this poor guy in the middle of a psychotic break and left him gasping for breath. *One guy* who was having trouble connecting with reality, and Barry can't stop bragging about how he messed up somebody who was already seriously messed up. Elsewhere he explains that with the punch to the guy's stomach, he didn't "have to put up with nearly as much self importance" on the part of this fellow. *Imagine* saying that about someone having a psychotic break. Or this: "I've got no time for selves that are so afraid of the concept of a joyfully unknowable reality that they have come to believe that they created it." Or this: "Better to leave them sitting on the ground gasping for breath and wondering how they ever thought *that* one up IMO. :-)" Or this: "I guess I'm not a fan of solipsism because, frankly, I just don't have the imagination that its adherents have. If they actually believe that they create all of the phenomena and beings around them, they've got a *lot* more imagination that I have." Remember who he's talking about--someone having *a psychotic break*. I don't know what you can possibly call this but sociopathy, a pathological lack of empathy, not to mention extreme anger.
