huh? that's presuming I'm interested in changing their minds!
> For example, you won't be able to get Fish to change his mind about
> these claims by pointing to this mistake and to the self-contradiction
> involved in claiming both that there are no rational foundations for
> belief and that there are rational foundations for beliefs about the
> "rationality" of those responsible for 9/11 so that "if we take the
> trouble to understand that rationality, we might have a better chance of
> figuring out what its adherents will do next and preventing it."
>
>Ted
I think it's possible to try to understand them so as to better go about the business of fighting them. Of course, I would also agree with Carrol that it probably doesn't much matter. We must persevere. (which is why I didn't get involved the other night at the mtg) But one thing that I find strange is this obsession with seeing them as crazy mo fos just because what they do doesn't make sense from _our_ persepctive. of course it doesn't! if they could see our side of it, they wouldn't be doing it! :)
OK. Nevermind. I can't convince you of anything, just like we can't convince Fish, and you can't convince me (which is actually contrary to my own experience of discussion lists and rational discussion more generally). But, I'm convinced of what you say... :)... so, I can see that it is a waste to have a discussion list at all.
So let's all go out and get drunk and discuss pube preferences and why the L-word sex scenes suck so badly instead! Oh, wait, then we might want to ask _why_ there are certain pube preferences among lezbeans, hetmen, bois, trans who hack off their breasts.....
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I'm soooooooooo naughty. I'm sorry Doug! I can't help myself. oh, why am i bothering to explain. No one can understand my irrational behavior! Wait! Can I understand my own? Hang on, Iris Marion Young says that maybe other people can understand you better than you can understand yourself. Maybe they can?
Sorry Ted, I respect you mucho, I just thought what you said was funny. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you?
Kelley
PS. I remember helping my gf with problems she was having with her hub. I happened to be reviewing a text for soc of family. One article in the reader was about family systems therapy. The idea was to understand the other person's patterns of behavior as well as your own and then disrupt that behavior by not doing what _you_ normally do--since you can't actually get them to change if you keep responding as usual. The idea was that changing your own behavior would would distablize the other person and force something to change. So, I thought she might want to try this with her hub. That article was drawing on an understanding of pscyhodynamics within a family. Is this wrong to try to do?