On the Outside Looking In

I believe there is a popular song about this by Don Ho called "tiny bubbles" however, one must wear the appropriate shirt when singing it.

Re: On the Outside Looking In



I'd like to think there's a middle ground between being programmed to think like everyone else, on one hand, and rampantly accepting all alternative views to be equally valid, on the other. I consider myself open-minded and am happy to hear what other people have to say about things, but I also think there is such thing as right and wrong. To err too much in either direction seems like a mistake--a moral one as well as a rhetorical one.

Shapeless I believe there is a middle ground between being programmed to think like everyone else and rampantly accepting all alternative views to be equally valid. Please forgive me if what I said sounded like anything other than that. Truthfully my point was more on the level of accepting people for who they are despite their beliefs. Being willing to hear them, the things they are saying, not based on whether or not we necessarily agree with what they think or believe, but based purely on the fact that they are a person who's ideas are valid because they are capable of making decisions for themselves.

So what if their idea's are different than ours? Big whoop. Does that somehow make them less acceptable as a person just because we don't agree? I don't think so. Just my opinion though. I know I am guilty of not always getting right to the point in my posts, or using a lot of metaphors when I'm talking about something. I don't really mean to, it's just how my brain works sometimes. I see things for more than just face value and usually try to put them in a perspective that can be understood on a different level by those who read it. I don't know. I hope that makes sense... LOL

Yeah, well if their ideas make them do horrible stuff, then I must oppose them. Other than that, people can be the same or different, such things do not really matter.

hephzibah,

Some time ago we discussed the view that all "reality" was "social" in the sense of being "negotiated". This has even been extended to "science" by Kuhn in his description of "scientific paradigms".

The problem is that successful negotiation requires the intelligence to see the limitations of ones own conditioning. Unfortunately that level of intelligence is often absent.