Friday, July 28, 2006
it takes work to have your own opinions. to have real opinions, you need to be able to accept the fact that you were wrong when new information changes your mind. otherwise you are clinging to someone else's thoughts. even if that someone else is just the old you.
maybe this is why so many people want someone else to provide an opinion for them, they can't handle their own fallibilty. it is much easier to cling blindly to something someone else has told you. if something your mind has created becomes obsolete, you are the first and the only person to know, and you start second guessing yourself immediately, unless you are completely bat-shit deluded and insane.
i think real views are built slowly, not simply adopted or discovered. it really sheds some light on my uninterested attitude towards interpersonal debate. all you can really gain from someone else is more information to help you with the war inside your mind. unfortunately for me, it seems that most conversation is debate. why argue with someone else? all i really want is the facts behind your ideas so i can add them to my repretoire. i don't really care where that has led you, and most people don't even know the facts anyways, just the headline they read. they don't even care, they just want something that they can say the believe, so they have something to offer if anyone makes the mistake of paying attention to them.
if you can lead me down your thought pattern, and have one of your ideas dawn on me while you are doing so, and then be able to flesh it out in ways i haven't even thought of, that i can respect. that is really what i am searching for in conversation. a glimpse into someone elses mind, so i can make it a part of mine. broad proclaimations have their place in a room filled with like minded people, where a drawn out explaination of the implications of your simplified idea are unnecessary. but why should a perfect stranger care if you think pictures of breast-feeding are immoral?
everyone wants to be the expert, and the less you have to explain to someone about a topic you and said someone know nothing about, the more you can bask in your false feeling of self-superiority.
just for good measure, in case you are reading, 'you' has become a defacto description of the old me. i spend most of my time lecturing my old self for the mistakes he has made. so you doesn't necessarily mean YOU, it usually means me. i can get away with my smug attitude because it is no longer me, it just used to be me, so i know i really am superior to the old me.
i didn't realize this until recently, but most of my rants that seem to be about the stupidity of everyone else are really directed at myself in one way or another. it makes sense, when you think about it. i am my greatest teacher because i am my greatest critic. i don't necessarily think you are stupid, except by association to myself. but realize i still think i smarter than just about everyone i meet, so i probably do think you are stupid too. if my own stupidity (or ex-stupidity) resonates, it isn't an indictment, per se. maybe it is your chance to stop being so stupid, as it was mine
maybe this is why so many people want someone else to provide an opinion for them, they can't handle their own fallibilty. it is much easier to cling blindly to something someone else has told you. if something your mind has created becomes obsolete, you are the first and the only person to know, and you start second guessing yourself immediately, unless you are completely bat-shit deluded and insane.
i think real views are built slowly, not simply adopted or discovered. it really sheds some light on my uninterested attitude towards interpersonal debate. all you can really gain from someone else is more information to help you with the war inside your mind. unfortunately for me, it seems that most conversation is debate. why argue with someone else? all i really want is the facts behind your ideas so i can add them to my repretoire. i don't really care where that has led you, and most people don't even know the facts anyways, just the headline they read. they don't even care, they just want something that they can say the believe, so they have something to offer if anyone makes the mistake of paying attention to them.
if you can lead me down your thought pattern, and have one of your ideas dawn on me while you are doing so, and then be able to flesh it out in ways i haven't even thought of, that i can respect. that is really what i am searching for in conversation. a glimpse into someone elses mind, so i can make it a part of mine. broad proclaimations have their place in a room filled with like minded people, where a drawn out explaination of the implications of your simplified idea are unnecessary. but why should a perfect stranger care if you think pictures of breast-feeding are immoral?
everyone wants to be the expert, and the less you have to explain to someone about a topic you and said someone know nothing about, the more you can bask in your false feeling of self-superiority.
just for good measure, in case you are reading, 'you' has become a defacto description of the old me. i spend most of my time lecturing my old self for the mistakes he has made. so you doesn't necessarily mean YOU, it usually means me. i can get away with my smug attitude because it is no longer me, it just used to be me, so i know i really am superior to the old me.
i didn't realize this until recently, but most of my rants that seem to be about the stupidity of everyone else are really directed at myself in one way or another. it makes sense, when you think about it. i am my greatest teacher because i am my greatest critic. i don't necessarily think you are stupid, except by association to myself. but realize i still think i smarter than just about everyone i meet, so i probably do think you are stupid too. if my own stupidity (or ex-stupidity) resonates, it isn't an indictment, per se. maybe it is your chance to stop being so stupid, as it was mine
