--- In [email protected], turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > Lately I've been finding myself noticing what I perceive > as the basic nature of Fairfield Life.
"Lately"? It's rare that we don't have a week in which Barry tells us what he perceives to be the basic nature of Fairfield Life. Why does he have to pretend this is something new? Not even the perceptions he describes in this post are new; they're same-old, same-old: For most partici- > pants, it seems to be a forum on which they spout off > about things that they "know," more often than not in > an attempt to "prove" that someone they're arguing with > *doesn't* "know," or doesn't "know" as much, or "knows" > less perfectly and admirably than they do. > > I find it kinda boring, and suspect that my days here > are numbered. He tells us this on a regular basis too. I just don't fit in, in the sense that I > don't "know" diddleysquat. Nada. Rien. Nichevo. Bupkus. > I just have beliefs, and opinions. And my path through > life and the experiences I've had -- both external and > internal -- have convinced me that *none* of these > beliefs or opinions have anything to do with "knowing." > They're just what they are -- beliefs and opinions. So > there is nothing for me to "prove" one way or another, > or even to care to. > > What I *do* have, in the absence of "knowing" or faith > or whatever those who are so certain about their...uh... > certainty might want to call it, is a sense of Wonder > about the universe I live in. It is as ever-surprising > as it is ever-changing. > > And what I don't understand about those who claim to > "know" is why they sought so diligently to *eradicate* > that sense of Wonder in themselves. Notice that immediately after stating that he "knows nothing," Barry tells us definitively, as if it were established fact, what those who claim to "know" have done. And he doesn't see the self-contradiction. They seem to be so > *proud* of "knowing" things, and of no longer exper- > iencing Wonder when they interact with life. And the above clearly represents a serious failure on Barry's part to draw accurate conclusions about the people he disagrees with. Being confident about the truth of one's beliefs *in no way* means "no longer experiencing Wonder" when one "interacts with life." What a very limited view that is. They have > Experience A, and for them it fits neatly into the > little box they have labeled "This is how we 'explain' > things like Experience A," and they smile, because they > "know" what's going on, and what made it go on. Some > feel they even "know" WHY it's going on. > > All this certainty makes me feel kinda sad for them. Notice how certain Barry is of his notions about the folks he's talking about: > How *boring* life must be for them, to never be sur- > prised by events, and only to see them as "proof" of > the things they already "know." How sad it must be to > be reduced to debating others about the nitpicky details > of the things they "know," versus the things that these > other "knowers" "know." "Must be," says Barry. He *knows* life is boring for them, how they are never surprised by events, how "sad" it is that they enjoy debating others. No doubts there for Barry, no sense of "Wonder" when he interacts with these people, no question in his mind about them. He has it all figured out. > When I run into people more like myself, who "know" > only that we don't know shit, there is never any need > or desire to debate, or to argue. We wind up talking > about the things we love and find Wonder in. We enjoy > our time together, and then part even more full of > our normal sense of Wonder, more often than not > laughing as we go. > > What do those who "know" feel after debating someone > who "knows" something different than they do? Do they > exit from the discussion happy and uplifted at having > "proved" how much they "know," or are they just look- > ing compulsively for the next person on which to > wield their "knowledge" like a battleaxe? I wonder. No, he doesn't wonder. He *knows*. And again, he's told us all this over and over. What I and others see in Barry is a reluctance to debate because he's lousy at it. He is so afraid of exposing his ideas--what he "knows"--to challenge that he only feels comfortable laying out those ideas in a single post (the same ideas time after time) and refusing to debate them. That way he never has to deal with his myriad self-contradictions and other failures of logic and observation.
