Re: Perhaps... -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 15:12:21 06/16/04 Wed
Author: mt. healthy mountaineer
Subject: Re: Perhaps...
In reply to: mvd 's message, "Perhaps..." on 09:53:24 06/15/04 Tue

I agree with your first thesis, at least a lot of it, but your second is a line of BS, in my opinion. You've taken an overarching cultural/western civilizational trait and forced it onto a neighborhood situation and it doesn't quite fly.

Back to your first thesis, I think you could add to it the taboo of offering help out of the fear of offending the person you are offering help to. Put it in everyday terms - there comes the point in life where you really aren't capable of driving anymore - but how many elderly are told they shouldn't drive anymore? Not enough, based on my experiences on the road and the occasional news story about horrific accidents in which the brake and gas pedals were confused, etc...

But, we all know that losing that license in any but the biggest of cities in America means losing a great measure of your independence.

Offering help can be a way of saying that everyone knows you're not making it - you can't be independent.

We do have tons and tons of anonymous ways of offering help (welfare, food pantries,etc.) that do allow the person receiving aid to maintain a facade of independence.

I also remember my Grandpa offering one of our neighbors help in a way that helped keep everyone's dignity. He was an aerospace engineer who had lost his job in the recession of 1981. My Grandpa always hired him to put up hay with the rest of us (mostly teenage boys) and paid him more than he paid us (and that engineer worked us country boys into the ground too) but he was able to supplement his unemployment and also work. Us boys understood. It was all out there but no one's dignity was compromised.

BTW - I also think Chomsky's thoughts on politics and economics are basically a big line of BS, too. His area of expertise is linguistics and apprarently he is a certifiable genius at that. He should stick to that. My opinion. He'd probably like me to stick to my areas of expertise as well.

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Replies:

BS or not -- mvd, 15:32:01 06/16/04 Wed
- Re: BS or not -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 16:11:02 06/16/04 Wed
  - Re: BS or not -- mvd, 16:50:03 06/16/04 Wed
    - Re: BS or not -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 09:53:09 06/17/04 Thu
      - I mostly agree -- mvd, 14:02:15 06/17/04 Thu
        Re: I mostly agree -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 15:20:38 06/17/04 Thu
        Re: I mostly agree -- mvd, 18:57:08 06/17/04 Thu
        Re: I mostly agree -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 09:21:51 06/18/04 Fri
        Re: I mostly agree -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 09:24:11 06/18/04 Fri
  - Re: BS or not -- mvd, 16:53:01 06/16/04 Wed
    - Re: BS or not -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 10:01:29 06/17/04 Thu
      - Re: BS or not -- mvd, 13:59:56 06/17/04 Thu
        Re: BS or not -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 15:26:56 06/17/04 Thu
        Re: BS or not -- mvd, 18:37:10 06/17/04 Thu