Klarinet Archive - Posting 001100.txt from 1999/07

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Rationality
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 12:59:48 -0400

There seem to be a few subtleties of debate that are eluding some of the less
experienced members of this group. I would like to provide a bit of
enlightenment.

1. Not all criticism is "bashing".

This is a KEY point. I've seen half a dozen or more messages in the great
marching band fiasco of the past week, usually from younger members, starting
out with "I don't like seeing anyone bash marching band, marching band is
great." Just because someone points out legitimate, or even illegitimate,
problems with marching band does not mean they are "bashing". The word
"bashing" should be reserved for sweeping, unsupportable and/or insulting
generalizations. Something like: "marching band is a complete waste of time
and any moron who participates in it is damaged for life." THAT'S bashing.
Fortunately, I haven't heard ANYTHING like that in this list for several
months. What I've heard are reasoned arguments from experienced educators
and professionals.

2. Not everyone agrees with you.

This is another key point, one that often does not truly dawn on people until
they've been in the real world for many years. There is a tendency to think
that one's own opinions are shared by the world at large. This is very
rarely true. For ANY GIVEN STATEMENT, true or false, there exists a
substantial body of humans who believe it, and an almost equally substantial
body of humans who believe the exact opposite. Further, for most such
statements, there are both support groups and Internet mailing lists for
people on both sides. This is a Good Thing, with the possible exception of
National Association of Telemarketers.

3. Not everyone who disagrees with you is angry with you.

I know many mature people who still believe that if I don't share their
opinion, I must automatically be angry with them. This, of course, makes it
almost impossible to have a rational, adult discourse on that topic. It is
far too common to see responders on this list take things way too personally.
This is aggravated by the impersonal nature of e-mail, which makes it easy to
write statements that one would not even consider making in person.

4. How you say it is almost as important as what you say.

I don't really want to get into an essay on e-mail etiquette, grammar and
spelling, although there are a number of members of this list who would
benefit from such an essay. It is a simple fact that a post with correct
punctuation, capital letters, and reasonably-sized paragraphs gets read.
others get ignored long run on sentenses without any sepparation or
punctucation are impossibl toi sccan i dont hav time to wade through hundred
lines of unseparated mizpelld words to parse the meaning rules were desined
to make things like this easier to reed lets use them

Thank you for your attention.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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