Apology is due to Gloom

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

In the thread “Joe Biden 46 president”

I said and I quote, “from your postings, you are an idiot”

and I was rightfully taken to task by others…

and it was wrong…simple as that… I make no excuses for my intolerance…

and upon further reflection, I see my error and hope to share that with you…

this is a philosophy site, where the point isn’t to win an argument or to score
points, but to examine and understand certain aspects of human existence…

by saying “you are an idiot” I take away the very fundamental aspect of
what philosophy is… that of discussion… free and open discussion about topics
of concern to the ILP family…I must be better then that… If I am to be
a thinker of note as I have mentioned many times, I must set a better example of
what dialogue and discussion is…by shutting down Gloom as I did, I failed to
follow my very first rule of life…

“That all men/human beings are created equal”

and in my denying that basic fact to Gloom, I failed… I failed ILP
and I failed Gloom and most importantly, I failed myself…

if there is one lesson learned over these last 4 years is we have to
hold ourselves accountable for our words and actions…the lies
and untruths of the last 4 years makes us even more responsible
for what we say, write and do in the days, weeks, months and years ahead…

and by shutting the conversation as I did, I didn’t do anyone any favors…
no more communication is possible if all we say is “fuck off” or “your an idiot”

we must engage in lowering the rhetoric, not amp it up and we must
use our ears… even more then our months… I heard once that
the reason god gave us two ears and only one mouth is to
let us know which one we should use more…

the ears…in case you were wondering… :laughing:

and so I offer us this apology to Gloom for my terrible response that he
didn’t deserve… I should have used my two ears instead of my one mouth…

everyone, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity…
and why?

“all men/human beings ARE created equal”

my ego wants me to be one of the “Higher” people,
an “Ubermensch” as it were…but if there are only equal people, then
there is no person anywhere who is an “Ubermensch”

there is just us… living, loving, praying, and dying…

life is hard enough for us to make it even worse with dumb ego responses
like, “you are an idiot”

I take full responsibility for my terrible choice of words and I hope to
aim higher as a human being… not to resort to insults or attacks… but
to listen and have a dialogue… using my ears and not my mouth…

will I always succeed…no, but the point is to be aware of our words and actions
and try to do better, each and every single day…

Kropotkin

2

If I am to play off that I am older, wiser, smarter and teaching you “young ones”
then I have to actually be that person who is older, wiser, smarter and teaching
something better then, “Fuck off” or “You are an idiot”

If my ego says that is who I am, then by god, I had better be that person or
I am engaging in that classic game of being “inauthentic” or being an “hypocrite”
and that doesn’t fit very well into one’s mental image of oneself…

Kropotkin

3

The tricky thing here, in my view, is a distinction that can be made between discussions on the Philosophy board and discussions on the Society, Government, and Economics board.

Philosophy exchanges often revolve around the sort of discussions that generally steer clear of what William Barrett called “rival goods”. And what I call “conflicting goods”. Something that, ironically enough, I often take issue with in regard to that which most interest me philosophically: how ought one to live in a No God world?

On the Society, Government, and Economics board however “down to earth” conflicts are everywhere. And these existential conflagrations often revolve around the actual consequences that can unfold when either a Donald Trump and the conservatives are in power or a Joe Biden and the liberals are in power. They pursue policies that have very real consequences [good and bad] for very real flesh and blood human beings.

So, it’s always going to be more probable that tempers flare in discussions of this sort.

And, in particular, for those who insist that the world can only be divided up rationally and virtuously between those who are “one of us” [the good guys] and “one of them” [the bad guys].

And most here know my own dilemma in regard to that.

Now, Gloominary has acknowledge to me that…

…but there is still a part of him that, subjunctively, gets pissed off at those who don’t think about all of it as he does.

In other words, an “honest conversation about life” revolves around how he sees the world around him. And, here, he has his own rendition of the “deep state”. Just as I do.

Only my rendition is still no less embedded in my own far more “fractured and fragmented” understanding of “I” in the is/ought world.

His, I suspect, considerably less so.

4

commendable

5

Thanks. :wink:

6

that’s the spirit.