Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 20:29:48 +0000 (BST)
From: John Appleby <pyrew-AT-csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: New Year, Same Old Crap


On Thu, 7 Jan 1999 Unleesh-AT-aol.com wrote:

> The problem that I have with this example is that it involves two people
> trying to decide something for another person. I'm more interested in the
> first person's experience and engaging that than engaging in polemics with the
> latter two people.

Okay, I did not make myself clear enough: The first person is so
'eccentric' that you cannot engage with her. In any meaningful manner.

> In your first example, there were two people who had experiences and
> interpreted them differently. Then a third party, us the audience, are being
> called upon to decide or judge these interpretations and sort out which is
> more correct, or perhaps to construct our own alternative theory. Again,
> someone else is attempting to decide how someone else's experience ought to be
> interpreted.

Yeah, that's politics for you.
 
> Regarding modelizations of experience, many might be quite useful in various
> degrees, depending on one's criteria of usefulness. 

'Repatriate all the immigrants because they take our jobs' might be quite
a useful modelization if you are unemployed and looking for work. Does
this make it ethically sound? 

I'm sure that you will say that this is coercive. How about 'children can
better their financial situations by selling their bodies'.Would it be 
coercive to try to convince them not to follow such a course of action?

Regards

John