>what remains even more astounding is that so many people here seem to have
>been sprung from the head of zeus. they seem to have performed some sort
>of forgetting about how they came to an understanding of the world
>different from that of the rest of "the people". am i the only one who
>remembers the process of learning to think differently about the world?
Ah, some beautiful moments there, eh? Often wonder whether I wouldn't have been happier had those moments not come along though. Being a leftie hurts, I reckon. Perhaps it didn't in our parts of the world thirty years ago, but geez it's been an irksome state since then. Lonely as a bastard on Father's Day, for a start. You never seem to share the premises of any of the conversations that come your way, so you've either to be prepared to belabour your fellows with a foreword that gets 'em looking straight at their Timexes or, if you're dressed for the part, do a Michael Oakshott ('that, sir, is something upon which I have not found it necessary to entertain an opinion'). Either way, you're the only mammal on the block a nanosecond later.
Thankfully I live among Anglo-Saxons, so I always have a poo joke at the ready.
>am i the only one who recalls that it was not by being beaten into submission
>that i was swayed but by being given persuasive, persistent arguments and,
>probably more importantly, admiring the people who were trying to "teach"
>me because they were good and decent people, people with principals.
True. Mind you, I was drawn in by people who had to behave generously and expansively coz they had to live, work, shag and strike together for the rest of their lives (Bradford 5, West Yorkshire). Now that I feel ready to try my hand in a few such exploratory chats, neither I nor my fellows seem thusly bound. We're all rugged individualists committed to a collectivist politics, I reckon. A buncha leopards trying to make a pride outa themselves ...
Cheers, Rob.