From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Thu Oct 23 1997 - 10:32:40 MDT
> >> Curious. I've always regarded that as the mating cry of the braindead.
> >> Damien Broderick
>
> >Thanks. That phrase has always disturbed me too, but I could never
> >quite put my finger on why. Now it's clear: it is used by those who
> >regard social interaction more highly than private intellectual
> >pursuits; perhaps because they lack confidence in their own abilities
> >and seek approval.
>
> <sigh> Go ahead, insult me. I can take it.
I did not insult you in any way, or make any personal comment, but I
will make one now: if you continue to assume that others are attacking
/you/ when they merely respond to your /ideas/ (as you have often
assumed of me, because our ideas often conflict), you will discourage
further exploration of those ideas.
> I beg to differ -- your thesis is anything but "clear". When I say it, I mean
> that the person I'm saying it to has lost sight of the importance of balance
> in life. Introspection alone cannot reveal reality -- you have to go look at
> it. And while reading and writing are valuable, people wrote the books and
> people read them, and words on paper cannot convey the richness of human
> experience and interaction....
Perhaps that's what /you/ meant--I can even believe you meant that
because I know you--but I still think that most uses of "you need to get
out more" are precisely as pegged: the mating call of the braindead,
used by people to mean "I have no idea what you're talking about or
why it's important; why aren't you talking about getting laid?" If I
wanted to tell someone that his amount of introspection as opposed to
direct experience of life is too much, I'd use a different phrase (though
I've never actually had occasion to do so, because most people I know
are not introspective enough).
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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