| | Linz - and anyone else who misinterpreted my sanction of MSK's article:
My sanction does not imply agreement. My personal reaction to those who write what I already think is not much different from boredom, except for the rare case when the position in backed by arguments and facts that I didn't yet know about. That happens so seldom that I don't often sanction articles I agree with. Same thing with Andy P or Robert D: their errors are so old and familiar they bore me. On the other hand...
A cogent argument with which I disagree, but which does not bend to counterarguments that I already know, is an occasion of great intellectual pleasure, and a rare opportunity to use the word "fucking" accurately. To examine my position in the light of new insights gives me a new perspective, a new way to solve problems, sometimes even an opportunity to correct one of the remaining (and after this many years, usually minor) errors in my previous position.
I should make it clear that I did not give much thought, while reading MSK's article, to his ideas about the supposed utility of appeasing believers. I have no interest in converting anyone stupid enough or dishonest enough to hold religious beliefs in the first place, whatever their other virtues might be. I do, however, look for effective tactics for dealing with the stupid and dishonest in everyday life. And MSK's radical take on "turning the other cheek," not as a "Christian virtue" but as a reality-based tactic, is a brilliant insight I had an immediate use for.
There are many real-life contexts in which the obscurantist, the altruist, the collectivist will be very effectively undone by their own evils and errors. Letting them defeat themselves, by overextending their errors until their contradictions are manifest, and their evil defeats their own evil designs, at the cost of a mere appearance of yielding, is brilliant and effective: just look up "Russian Winter." Only I would not have called it "turning the other cheek," because I know enough about Jesus' context to understand that he absolutely, positively did NOT mean it that way. I'd call it, perhaps, "The Law of Non-Contradiction As a Weapon." Or "Automated Justice." Or maybe, "The Way of the Lazy Hero." If the other guy has some reason and some honesty left in him, he will stop before he totally destroys himself. Otherwise, just let the Russian Winter do its work.
Anyway, Linz, my way is to pick the gold and not get overly concerned about the lint. MSK's tactical insight worked very effectively in the situation I applied it to. The pleasure of seeing it work is on its way to becoming, in my mind, an inspiring memory. I can only repeat what I said when MSK's insight hit me like a shot of twenty-year-old Armagnac: Brilliant, just fucking brilliant!
(Edited by Adam Reed
on 10/27, 1:19am)
|
|
