Matt said to the recently admonished: I have no doubt most people are comfortable with the way they compose themselves, with their relative openness or politeness. But it isn't one's self one should be worried about--worrying about the other person's comfort level is what leads to good conversation. I don't know if that's an admonition or not, but it is another interventional suggestion. I have no wish for people to be fake, to sin against their authenticity, who they are. But it was Socrates who taught us to wonder, from time to time, whether or not who we are is the best "are" we could be. dmb says: The assigned reading in my Plato class this week is the Apology of Socrates, where he talks most emphatically about what it means to be the best we can be. In both the content and in the performance of that talk, politeness is nowhere to be seen. In some respects, he was even opposed to it. He defends his god-given role as the gadfly whose job it was to make people feel uncomfortable and, in open court, he calls his accusers ignorant liars and such. He practically says he'd rather die than be forced to be polite. My point? Just that it's not unusual to see dickish behavior among philosophers, you ignorant liar. Just kidding. Actually I think you're honest and knowledgable. And sensitive and wrong. Not that there's anything wrong with being sensitive. I guess it's one of those deals where it makes more sense to put on a sweater rather than warm the whole room. And it seems to me that the temperature is one of the best ways to measure the level of caring in the room. Nobody gets all hot and bothered over things they don't care about. Nobody gets angry or frustrated unless they care. We worry only when care about something. That sort of thing is on the negative side of caring. And isn't it super easy to be nice when you don't really care? "Sure, you can have that last slice of pizza, he said, as his overstuffed stomach ached and grumbled and belched." So what do you care about most here? Why does the MOQ matter to you?
Personally, I'm in it for the pizza. _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™ Hotmail®:…more than just e-mail. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_explore_012009 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
