--- david_russell_watson <
liberty@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "jouppe"
> <jouppe@...> wrote:
> >
> > I very much agree with Marius. Singling out one
> offender with these
> > insinuating questions, when there obviously are
> other of the kind
> > around, does not solve the problem, rather
> entrenches and legitimises
> > a culture of insulting and slanderous conduct.
>
> My reply is at
>
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist_admin/message/263
> .
>
> David
>
My apologies if this should be directed elsewhere. On
any list there are experts, beginners and cranks --and
those who fall in between. We should be mature or
realistic enough to respect those who have more
expertise and refrain from continually badgering
everyone with screams that the accumulated knowledge
of the discipline is a pile of shit and that I, only
I, have the truth, revealed to me by a striped-ass
baboon or some holy text. That said, there is a place
for new ideas, but the burden of proof is on the
innovator not established wisdom. Intellectual inquiry
is not religion, not faith, and must constantly be
tested --but in an intellectual manner. The facts
speak for themselves and cannot be warped to suit the
hypothesis. Speculative long-range ideation is fine
but can't be proven without systematic reconstruction
from the bottom-up not the top-down. With all due
respect to Lenin, intellectuals are not democratic
centrists with a bolshevik top-down system in which
facts spring from the conclusion. With all due respect
to hyperactive anarchists, we need to follow a
research methodology or we will just be engaging in
associative blind-guessing. David has a point that
anyone who is interested in pseudo-scientific
endeavors such as Marrism, obsession with conclusions
based on mass comparison should make their case on
another list. But unless someone is terrorizing the
list, we should use our delete buttons rather than
throw them of the list. We also should not feel afraid
to make our feelings know since we have invested a
certain cathexis in this list. I have disagreed with
Piotr, Miguel and Brian but I don't call them idiots
or liars or insult their lineage. Be civil and
realistic. If this list is your only social activity,
it's time to find a significant other, write refereed
academic articles or publish a book on what you so
fervently believe in.
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