Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Kay Argyle (argylemines.utah.edu) | |
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 17:51:01 -0700 (MST) |
In defense of making much ado about "nothing," nothingness is in the eye of the beholder. You don't know whether you have consensus before you discuss something, and sometimes discussion modifies the consensus. Sometimes you have consensus and shouldn't have, because your consensus is ignorant (the world is flat) or even immoral (skin color measures something -- anything -- besides the presence of melanin). Discussion is the only hope of evaluating that. The frightening thing about questioning the rules is that it dawns on you that if one "rule" was wrong, maybe others are ... maybe lots ... maybe all. The walls around your mind come tumbling down, and the world is a cold and drafty place. You have to test each step, picking your way through the rubble. Having started questioning everything, you're going to find that some things are true, after all. Does that mean it was a waste of time to question them? No. The debate about senority established that most people contributing to the discussion, having considered the matter, feel it is a legitimate, reasonably fair method, applicable to this particular case. It also brought out a couple of suggestions about other approaches -- like, do you need a priority system at all? > There are so many issues that get brought up that nobody ever replies to. Examples, please? It seems to me there is considerable discussion of the nuts and bolts of achieving affordability, diversity, simplicity, community, environmentally sound practices ... and patience. When I'm making baby steps towards some distant goal, and somebody who is further along the road gets impatient and disdainful of my efforts, I question whether that road is one I want to be on. That's true whether the goal is moral, physical, educational or anything else. I have a right to be a beginner, even if it means I make mistakes, that I'm unoriginal, clumsy, or insufficiently devoted. If the "enlightened ones" are intolerant of my not having achieved perfection yet, I'm going to stay imperfect, by choice. Kay Argyle Wasatch Commons P.S. One of the reasons I joined cohousing was I was tired of everyone thinking I was crazy. Here were a bunch of people who were crazy just like me! You may be tired of people agreeing with you; I'm not. ;)
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Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing lilbert, October 31 2000
- Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing Howard Landman, October 31 2000
- Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing Kay Argyle, October 31 2000
- Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing Berrins, October 31 2000
- Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing Hans Tilstra, October 31 2000
- Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing lilbert, October 31 2000
- Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing lilbert, October 31 2000
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