[lbo-talk] The God Delusion

[Jeffrey Fisher]

On 10/23/06, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >From: "Jeffrey Fisher" <jeff.jfisher at gmail.com>
> >
> >On 10/23/06, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>... I'm a big believer in the tonic power of ridicule. ...
> >
> >... you can't expect to bring people around to your side by
> >ridiculing them, i don't think. i'd be interested if there is data
> >sugesting the contrary. or do you simply, um, "believe in" ridicule? ...
>
> Devoutly!  Americans have an abiding (and well-founded) sense of insecurity.

indeed. let us see how it expresses itself.


>   As de Tocqueville noted:  "The Americans, in their intercourse with
> strangers, appear impatient of the smallest censure and insatiable of
> praise. . . . They unceasingly harass you to extort praise, and if you
> resist their entreaties they fall to praising themselves. It would seem as
> if, doubting their own merit, they wished to have it constantly exhibited
> before their eyes."

you don't say?

j

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