On Monday 08 Aug 2011 12:34:05 am Badri Natarajan wrote: > you clearly have a viewpoint (and it isn't that hard to figure out from > your questions) but you rarely come out and say it. > Take 2:
I have a tendency to dissect my own thoughts and feelings to explore areas that are disagreeable (to me) with a view to asking myself why they should be disagreeable. When I pose the same questions in the way I think online some people are faced with very uncomfortable choices and some react with anger. Especially if they are areas that people do not consciously like to explore. One of the reasons why I don't insist that something is definitely my viewpoint is becasue it often is not a solid viewpoint that I have settled comfortably into holding. It is a tentaive position given the complexity of the issue in question. There is often no black or white answer. This is a style of communication that does shake a lot of people. Your description of it has set off a lot of thoughts about exactly how I came to communicate in this way - and yes there is a history of lawyers in my family who moulded the way I speak and think. Your point about the difficulty of discussing "right wing" issues is valid. If you read translations of the Quran and hadiths you find that the text is remarkably candid about acts that are considered "off limits" for prudish modern Hindu society and what remains of Victorian style prudery in western society. If I ask my self "Why is that text so refreshingy candid and why are people from my social group so shy of discussing normal bodily functions?" - I can find no answers to such questions within my mind. But posing those questions on a list such as this cause enough discomfort for me to be dismissed as a right wing loony without even having the intent to be that way. The only conclusion I can reach is that I am touching very sensitive areas of people's minds - areas that are normally closed, making them want to stop uncomfortanble "taboo" thoughts in the bud. I have always known this but every now and again I discover how far I can go before discomfort among others stops me from finding answers to questions I have in my mind. No thought is taboo in my mind. I am personally willing to ask myself why I should not be murdering people. Yes I think it is wrong. But why is it wrong? shiv
