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Didn't Know What To Say
Nov. 5th, 2002 01:56 pm
Hey there, all...
Over the past few days, with various debates and issues coming up almost constantly among the wide cross-section of my friends, colleagues and associates, I am continually fascinated by the various different realities held by so many individuals I come into contact with on a daily basis.
Truths that I hold to be self-evident are completely disbelieved by other people. A situation that, logically, states that X should happen under certain condition in my mind is disregarded by another individual who thinks Y happens instead. Axioms, philosophies, the very fabric of reality itself seems to be such a...fluid thing, such an unstable thing if you really sit back and think about it. It's like, "Hi, we're both wearing red shirts. Mine is cotton. Yours is rayon. We will never know what it's like to wear the same shirts."
It's just made me wonder; what's the purpose of debating with someone at all? In this day and age of Internet research, any 'objective information' I can come up with can be disproven by anyone who has contrastin and somehow 'better' 'objective information'. Zen is Mahayana, Coke is Pepsi, Caution is Paranoia, Indifference is Hatred...is it possible to have an opinion any more without immediately having to hedge to the myriads of other opinions out there?
Whatever happened to empathy? Whatever happened to making the attempt to understand someone else's reality? When did we all become so polarized that *everyone* else in the world is wrong? When did compromise go out of fashion?
I'm disturbed by the tendency we all have these days of putting ourselves so deeply into our own boxes that we can't look around to get a glimpse of other people. We're all...groundhogs, suddenly.
Saw "The Exorcist" for the first time last night. I think it's one of the few movies I could adequately describe as revolutionary...there are some things I saw last night that I had never, ever seen, nor likely will again, and even after 30 years it's still...well, really disturbing. That's...a masterwork. :)
Ramadan starts tomorrow. Solus, I'm *so* sorry I never got back to you and starting it. <:/ I'll e-mail you tomorrow, maybe, and we can go from there. Better late than never, right?
Over the past few days, with various debates and issues coming up almost constantly among the wide cross-section of my friends, colleagues and associates, I am continually fascinated by the various different realities held by so many individuals I come into contact with on a daily basis.
Truths that I hold to be self-evident are completely disbelieved by other people. A situation that, logically, states that X should happen under certain condition in my mind is disregarded by another individual who thinks Y happens instead. Axioms, philosophies, the very fabric of reality itself seems to be such a...fluid thing, such an unstable thing if you really sit back and think about it. It's like, "Hi, we're both wearing red shirts. Mine is cotton. Yours is rayon. We will never know what it's like to wear the same shirts."
It's just made me wonder; what's the purpose of debating with someone at all? In this day and age of Internet research, any 'objective information' I can come up with can be disproven by anyone who has contrastin and somehow 'better' 'objective information'. Zen is Mahayana, Coke is Pepsi, Caution is Paranoia, Indifference is Hatred...is it possible to have an opinion any more without immediately having to hedge to the myriads of other opinions out there?
Whatever happened to empathy? Whatever happened to making the attempt to understand someone else's reality? When did we all become so polarized that *everyone* else in the world is wrong? When did compromise go out of fashion?
I'm disturbed by the tendency we all have these days of putting ourselves so deeply into our own boxes that we can't look around to get a glimpse of other people. We're all...groundhogs, suddenly.
Saw "The Exorcist" for the first time last night. I think it's one of the few movies I could adequately describe as revolutionary...there are some things I saw last night that I had never, ever seen, nor likely will again, and even after 30 years it's still...well, really disturbing. That's...a masterwork. :)
Ramadan starts tomorrow. Solus, I'm *so* sorry I never got back to you and starting it. <:/ I'll e-mail you tomorrow, maybe, and we can go from there. Better late than never, right?
