Mary raised a question recently about something she calls, "The Elevator
Speech".  Suppose somebody asks you a question or somehow the subject just
comes up, "So... What's this MoQ thing, anyway?"  You only have the time
between floors, to answer.  What do you say?

I thought it was a good question and pretty hard to answer, but it led me
to start thinking about the subject, and I found out when I looked inside,
that I really want to know how to explain the MoQ to a 14 year old.  Life's
ripest subject - teenagers.

Poor teenagers today.  Lost in a whirl of competing flash and image, with
no real impetus toward any of the classic disciplines.  The three R's?
Reduced to mere technical proficiencies and punctuated with drill and test,
but how to think?  That's a lost art indeed.  So they need help, these
teens of today.  A way to guide their tender minds, a path of mercy through
the thralls of babylon babble.  A way of looking for themselves at reality
and asking, "what is best".  What value system do I use to judge between
all the systems of philosophy and religion that compete for my attention?

I believe such a question, if properly worded, would appeal to teenagers.
We live in a rather computer-oriented world, so to get them to see that the
MoQ is a different operating system than SOM,  would make a connection in
their tender little synapsis, where some light could come in.  And I don't
think I'd have any difficulty explaining the MoQ, even though its somewhat
still in beta, it's pretty simple to offer it as an OS which takes into
account, fundamental value.  That is, that there is a reason for asking.
Life isn't just randomly generated chaos or some whimsical fairy tale
invenented by priests.

SOM though, would be a bit harder to explain.  More tedious.  The idea that
we can objectively choose, is false.  We can't stand apart from our reality
and judge.  We are bound up and part of our reality, and our being is
dependent upon the reality we choose!  A twisted tiffany indeed!  We are
stuck in an endless hall of mirrors.

And yet not stuck.  There is a way of seeing through all this, and that's
why I recommend MoQ .1b  Even though it is in beta and SOM 3.0 is long
tested and popularly adopted.

That would take longer than the average elevator ride, but I think it would
get through to a 14 year old.
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/md/archives.html

Reply via email to