Steven McGraw wrote: > > Plenty > of public intellectuals have an equally uncomplicated view of the world, >
I suspect _everyone_ has at least two views of the world, a complex view and a simpler view -- simplification coming from different sources in different people. (Everyone has a third view, which comes into operation as the _only_ view whenever they act. That third view is always changing, but is always absolute at a given moment when they act.) The view anyone _expresses_ at any given time is constrained by command of verbal means, by particular purpose, by occasion which calls forth the expression. And that expression can be more or less deliberately simplified or can be constrained in ways which act independently of conscious purpose. Et cetera et cetera. But I think the ascription of an "uncomplicated view of the world" to others is itself a rather over-simplified concept. Even a Cal Thomas might be, in his private musings, not quite the ventriloquist dummy he appears to be. (Ditto Klo McCloskey (n?) for those who have encountered him on the same maillist. On the other hand -- Adolpho Olichaea [?] -- I still suspect him of being an invented parody, existing only in cyberspace.) Carrol
