> Reed Konsler <konsler@ascat.harvard.edu> writes:
> <<
> Maybe the alternative is oblivion. Maybe the beast is really a
> beauty. It depends on your point of view.
> >>
>
> In the proper sense, the beast ("faith") can have it's good sides, or
> it's pretty moods, but I suspect it always... there is a very dark
> side to faith, much more destructive than they dark side of reason (in
> my estimation).
>
> <<
> I had the same experience. Most people are people people. If you
> aren't talking about people or to people, you have a hard time
> maintaining their interest. People are more important than ideas.
> >>
>
> Well, I guess that marks me off from the crowd them. I am certainly
> not a "people person". People are more important than ideas.
> Probably true. I'll admit, however, that it's alien to me. There is
> a gem here that I'll have to think about a while.
I am not a People person either, but I would say that ideas are more important than people. "Freedom" as an idea is worth dying and killing for. I dont care how many people die so that "freedom" exists for the others - including nuclear oblivion. So is "Individuality" and several others. People, though essential to ideas, are disposable on the grand scale easily demonstratable when we look at our history and remember perhaps .0001% of those that have lived. Many of us Americans would see many articles in the Bill of Rights as Ideas more valuable than peoples lives. Freedom of expresion, religion, carry fire arms, privacy - all worth killing or dying for in my opinion.
>
> <<
> But that ball never goes anywhere. I'd rather build a set of
> gyroscopes inside the first two balls such that when the bottom one
> rolls, the top one counter-rotates in exact response. Then give the
> system a little nudge and it will roll, upright, along the path.
> Sure, it's unstable in principle...but it moves.
> >>
>
> That would be interesting. But is *inherent* instability in your
> belief set a possible human condition? (i.e. can a human mind
> maintain cognitive dissonance on a permanent basis?) Let's not loose
> ourselves in the metaphor!
> ERiC
I would say that cognitive dissonance is our natural state, stability is an illusion. As a relatively stable person (compared to those I interact with) I am oh so aware of the crumbling of the pylons my common-sense rests upon. Hopefully I shore up these pylons with more stable foundation and tear down those which are inherintly or subtly flawed before they fail. And then sometimes, I'm too late, and I must rebuild with new ideas and designs.
Bill Roh