| | Celeste,
Dayaamm! LOLOLOL...
Lower your guns. I ain't fighting - just ribbing.
I can understand your initial ire, but how about a retraction when you find out that it was misguided? That it was just a technical problem? Does that not fit in with your psychological make-up? I really hope you are not another one who has to be right 100% of the time.
When I personally make an accusation against another, later discover that it was unfounded, I do not leave the accusation in place. That makes it sound like I still believe it - and I love truth very much. If you would take the time to read my last article, you will see that I have no bones about openly admitting my own shortcomings and examining them in public. The only way to get to the truth is to hold it up to a rational standard that transcends personalities, including my own.
Since you are new, you don't know me yet. I can give you a list of my own retractions in posts when I have been overly enthusiastic and made incorrect statements. I also can give you a list of my posts containing very strong ideas and exciting engagements with extremely high quality minds. Part of the respect you sense that I receive from others is that they have seen this love of truth in action.
I don't presume that you are insincere. To be frank, I only have read a couple of posts of yours and I like how you stand up for what you believe. I may disagree (I haven't read enough of your posts to even start getting a handle on your thoughts), but I do not judge you to be insincere. You are completely wrong about that. (I did read in the troll article that Adam called you a troll, but I haven't read enough of your own posts to make my own decision.)
I also get no glee out of engagements with assholes who try to misrepresent my arguments with smarm, name-dropping and other ploys and then start calling me names. (I presume you have witnessed a couple of recent exchanges.) To tell the truth, I get a wistful kind of sadness. I wish that focus would stay on the ideas. I have made it my policy, however, to demand respect from those who would interact with me. I will not continue an interaction with such an asshole, but I will make it extremely clear to all who read my posts that such asshole is nothing but an asshole - at least with respect to me. Usually in general, though.
As to a superior attitude, do I feel superior to something like the crap I just mentioned? Nah. Maybe. I don't know. I don't compare myself to it. I have a lot of living to do yet and something like that is a complete waste of time - a total misuse of the precious minutes and hours of life that never return.
btw - None of this, the smarm remark or the asshole part, includes you for the time being. The respect part most definitely does - and I will respect you to the extent you respect me. That's the way it works with me. Granted, I started out by ribbing you. But then, I rib everybody and there is no malice intended whatsoever when I do that. Sorry to ruffle your feathers. (Still, fourteen whole minutes of unbearable agony sitting behind a computer from sadists on another computer on the other side of the world is a funny image.) Anyway, who knows? Only time and your own posts - should you ever choose to post again to me - will tell.
About power, what on earth is all this about? I have seen several people consider this forum to be some kind of Machiavellian center where power plays run rampant. It is not. It is merely an extremely high-quality privately owned clearinghouse for Objecivist ideas with strong emphasis on enthusiasm and sincerity. Nobody I know of is paid to post here, so there is not even a jockeying for monetary gain. What power are you talking about?
My love of Linz and what he (and others) have accomplished? That has nothing to do with power and everything to do with rational evaluation taken to an emotional level. Loving the good for being the good.
As a personal choice, initially I am interested in seeing what is in that mind of yours. Only that. I'll read up on you. You look like you could be a very interesting person.
Michael
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