--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "dhamiltony2k5" > <dhamiltony2k5@> wrote: <snip> > > Yes Rick, Good People doing bad things, continuing to support > > such an organization as it has become. > > And yet, is it our business to somehow convince > them that this is what they're doing? > > I ask because one poster on this forum
(Note that again Barry finds himself unable to utter my name. Perhaps that's because a little while back he vowed he was never going to read any of my posts ever again.) suggested > as much yesterday. The implication (possibly unin- > tended) of the post was that if she encountered a > friend who had come to believe something that she > considered untrue or even insulting to certain > minorities, she'd *have* to say something to set > the person right and change his or her mind, to > make (not stated, but definitely implied) some > kind of stand for "the truth." Actually, of course, I was posing a question. Let's have another look at what I wrote: "The question is, what do you *do* (or not-do) [when you encounter disagreement with what you value]? Suppose you're chatting with a kid, say, and she starts coming out with all kinds of bigoted remarks about black people. Do you just accept that she doesn't agree with your values? What if a good friend surprises you with a tirade against gay people? "It's not quite so simple as saying, as 'some people' here do, Well, that's your opinion. I have a different opinion. No one opinion is 'better' than any other." > If one feels that, doesn't that imply that they > feel that they KNOW the truth? > > I can't speak for you, Doug, but I DON'T know the > truth. About *anything*. All I have is opinions, > which as far as I can tell based on past perform- > ance (no scientific tests so far...sorry, Off), > are sometimes accurate, and sometimes not. Obviously, Barry's answer to my question is that you should *not* challenge anybody's opinions, because *you could be wrong*. For Barry, nothing is more terrifying than the possibility of being wrong. He avoids that danger by never taking a stand, never committing to a point of view. It's one thing to be able to recognize that your values don't necessarily represent The Truth. That's a step toward maturity. But there's a further step, which is to have the cojones to stand up for what you believe *even though you could be wrong*.
