From: Unleesh-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 22:13:26 EST
Subject: Re:  Re:  New Year, Same Old Crap


Roonsey, baby, let me explain to you why this is arrogant :

It's not our place to legislate other people's lives and to place the
"correct" interpretation of events upon them.

This whole notion of choosing between the "correct" and "incorrect"
interpretation has everything to do with Plato's distinguish simulucra from
genuine copies (which Deleuze critiques), and Nietzsche's critique of truth as
a courtroom procedure.

It's placing your worldview in hegemony above others. And particularly,
"reason" --- a notion which I'm surprised you aren't aware has been well
critiqued, from Adorno and Horkheimer to Lyotard as well as D&G --- is a
Western imperialist concept that is not shared by every culture in the world.
And you may not be aware of this as well, but we are no longer living in the
Enlightenment when Western rationalists patronizingly "dispelled the
superstitious illusions" of their "brown brothers" .... It's ethnocentrism,
plain and simple.

And it's arrogant to not take people on their own words. We can help provide
alternative interpretations, help them to suspend conclusions and keep open to
other modelizations, but if we do not listen to people's experience, we have
violated our right to listen in the first place.

It's not our place to legislate.

And "wrong" or "right" has Nothing to do with it. "Correct" or "incorrect" ---
these are objectivist obscurations to hide the fact that the speaker simply
doesn't "like" what's being said or that they are experiencing Cognitive
Dissonance, or more to the point, Stylistic Dissonance. If it's not your
style, hey, pass on in peace. But don't try to convince the world that Your
Judgement is the True and Holy One. It's just Your Judgement. And that has no
bearing upon their experience.

You're demanding that other people use Your meanings of terms. That's
arrogance! Other people are "auto-nom-ous" : they Self-Define, they set their
own terms.

When are you going to realize that the world needs Evangelical Rationalists
missionizing around the world, pronouncing their judgement, deciding who's
correct or incorrect in the name of reason just as Little as the world needs
Evangelical Christians missionizing around the world, pronouncing their
judgement, deciding who's right or wrong in the name of Jesus?

You can nitpick these points but the basic sense still remains. Try a little
empathy where you're not trying to "debate" with another but truly get into
their mindspace and experience what they're experiencing. If that's too much,
at least attempt to take people on their word.

Personally, I think you're spooked by mystic elves. Otherwise you wouldn't be
so frightened of them. I say you doth protest too much.

(un)leash