<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type><TITLE>Adjudicating differences, was Sokol and Bricmonts</TITLE><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <META content='"MSHTML 4.71.1712.3"' name=GENERATOR> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman">Doyle,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman">I don't believe I've ever been angry with you for saying I was moralizing.  I don't happen to think that morality/ethical-political thought are 'bad' things.  And to be told I'm moralizing doesn't bother me because my critic is usually moralizing as well.  My critics, however, always seem to want to evade that retort from me.   So.  Besides, if I were angry do you honestly think that I would have spent hours and hours corresponding with you off list about things I don't especially care a great deal about but that I thought I should at least try to learn about just a wee bit?  Doyle that would be silly and/or perverse of me.  Well, maybe I am perverse.  Why I think I actually am and I do like it that way.  So.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman">Again, you seem to be eager  to avoid obsessive compulsive behavior, no?  You seem to want folks to  understand how the brain "really" works so that we can ground our principles and strategies for revolutionary social change in a much more scientific and accurate understanding of the brain.  As such we will avoid o-c behavior which is the result of sectarian idealism which is the result of attaching strong feelings to rules.  In any event, any way you slice it Doyle.  You think that o-c behavior isn't a good state to be in, therefore if you suggest that someone is o-c or exhibiting o-c like behaviors you are, implicitly, suggesting that this is not a good thing.  And thus, you've deployed o-c in precisely the same way as Jim deployed blindness, irrationality, etc.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">As for the rest of the post, I really don't understand a word that you're saying despite all my exchanges with you.  All I know is this. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">1)  Jim would like to be able to claim that sightedness is preferable to blindness, to not be called on the carpet for it, and to claim that this is an objective (intersubjective perhaps?) truth which is to say that most people would agree given this historical moment.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">2). You would prefer that Jim doesn't make this claim because you disagree that sight is preferable to blindness, you gave historical examples of when this wasn't so.  And, you want him to refrain from using metaphors of disability as the margin between normal and deviant.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">If Jim thinks his claim is an objective truth and you don't, then how is it possible to have both your views respected?  I believe that it is possible w/o recourse to ontological acrobatics and without dissembling.  I simply asked you what you thought. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Besides, Doyle, you should appreciate me much more than you do:  Who else  gives you all these opportunities to expound on Neuroscience, ey?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">SnitgrrRl </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">SnitgrrRl</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>