The slogan "you are entitled to your opinion" is so often repeated that it is almost impossible for the brain of a modern person not to have absorbed it. Before showing that this cliche is very tricky at best "Of course you're entitled to your opinion, but...." Here is a simple way of putting it, if the opinions to which we are entitled might be false,the entitlement cannot properly be invoked to settle a dispute. It adds no new information on the original matter, it does nothing to show that the opinion in question is true.It does not in fact make the entitlement to an opinion relevant in deciding who is correct in any dispute.
You are entitled to an opinion, in this sense, only when you have good reasons for holding it, evidence,sound arguments, and so on.
It is increasingly a part of a mindset that obstruct the free flow of ideas and their robust and correct values. Many people seem to feel that their opinions are somehow sacred, so that everyone else is obliged to handle them with great care. When confronted with counterarguments, they do not pause and wonder if they might be wrong after all, they take offense.
Does your right to your entitlement to your opinion oblige others to agree with you? NO, as others too, are entitled to their opinions, which might contradict yours. Just think of the practical implications. Everyone would have to change his mind every time he met someone with a different opinion, changing his religion, his politics, his eating and drinking habits.
Does your right to your opinion oblige me to listen to you ? NO, many people have many opinions on many matters. You cannot walk through your normal day without hearing some enthusiast declaring his opinions on God or the Christian religion or the Zionist and imperialist conspiracy or some other topic of pressing concern, listening to them all is practically impossible, and not a duty.
Does your right or your entitlement to your opinion oblige others to let you keep it ? This is the closest to what I think most people mean and want when they claim a right to their opinion. They do so at just that point in an argument when they would otherwise be forced to admit error and have to change their position.
It's just that, on some topics, many people are not really interested in believing the truth. They might prefer it if their opinion turns out to be true.
Many of my friends, though not practicing members of their religions or not even accepting the many absurd details of their different sects, claim to believe in a "superior intelligence"or " something higher than us." Yet they will also cheerfully admit the absence of even a shred of evidence. Never mind. As truth really is not always the point,and it is very annoying to be pressed on the matter.
Finally to register all this, and to make it clear that truth is neither here nor there, they declare, " I am entitled to my opinion." Once we hear these words, one should realize that it is rude and inefficient to persist with the matter. You may be interested in whether or not their opinion is true,but accept that they are not.
As usual my thanks go to Jamie for inspiring and contributing to these ideas, and as always thanks for your time and patience, salamat.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
A VERSION OF OURSELVES !!!
My mother used to tell me for years, that when very young, I refused milk, her milk, or any other from different animals, a doctor at the time advised her to try and feed me with yogurt as a trial, it worked, I'm not sure whether it was the sour taste or the fermentation that I must have liked, but, that was the beginning, I'm still hooked to fermentation,
Everyone knows someone who has a so called eating disorder,and everyone knows about the the huge numbers of people in the world who are starving. Excess is everywhere now, excess of wealth and of poverty, of sex and greed, of violence and of religious belief.
When people are being extreme they push things to their limits, when they are being excessive they push things beyond their limits.
When we are excessive we depart from custom or reason, we overstep limits, we go beyond our rights, we involve in what the dictionary calls extravagant violation of law, decency or morality, we are guilty of outrageous conducts. When we are excessive, in whatever way, we depart from what is considered appropriate behavior, we go out from custom or reason, we abandon, the version of ourselves we are supposed to be.
And where do we get our standards of appropriate behavior, our pictures of ourselves as we are supposed to be ??? from societies, tribes and families we grew up in.
We should be able to enter into the minds and circumstances of those with opposing views to our own.
It's all a matter of balance, as A. Phillips worked hard to express, again thanks for your patience and time and salamat
Everyone knows someone who has a so called eating disorder,and everyone knows about the the huge numbers of people in the world who are starving. Excess is everywhere now, excess of wealth and of poverty, of sex and greed, of violence and of religious belief.
When people are being extreme they push things to their limits, when they are being excessive they push things beyond their limits.
When we are excessive we depart from custom or reason, we overstep limits, we go beyond our rights, we involve in what the dictionary calls extravagant violation of law, decency or morality, we are guilty of outrageous conducts. When we are excessive, in whatever way, we depart from what is considered appropriate behavior, we go out from custom or reason, we abandon, the version of ourselves we are supposed to be.
And where do we get our standards of appropriate behavior, our pictures of ourselves as we are supposed to be ??? from societies, tribes and families we grew up in.
We should be able to enter into the minds and circumstances of those with opposing views to our own.
It's all a matter of balance, as A. Phillips worked hard to express, again thanks for your patience and time and salamat
Sunday, August 7, 2011
J.J., IMMANUEL, FRIEDRICH, AND ME.....
MY, your, or our own odyssey ended in serene isolation and tranquil passivity.
To finally choose to will not to will, and simply to exist in a state of perfect indolence and listlessness.
In my present situation, " I no longer have any other rule of conduct than in everything to follow my propensity and inclinations without restraint."
To record in writing my daydreams and to savor select episodes from my past in the pages of my reveries, a good man lost in his thoughts, savoring anew those moments, brief and transient yet sweet. When I had felt most " perfectly free."
It is founded on daily Soul-searching, "one may say about this way of life what one will." People who take it seriously are distinguished in a way that is worthy of honor. They possess the highest qualities that a human being can possess, namely a calmness and pleasantness, an inner peace that can be disturbed by no obsession, passion or craze.
"The gentle but sensitive tranquility," of the philosopher is infinitely preferable to the euphoric elation and thrills dreamed of by the mystics.
His would be a philosophical life devoted to calm reasoning, impermeable by design to the caprices of strong feelings and unruly impulses.
All changes nowadays frightens me, even one that might offer a greater prospect of improvement in my circumstances.
All I have wanted is a situation in which my spirit, hypersensitive but in other respects carefree, and my body, more troublesome but never actually sick, can both be kept busy without being strained, and that is what I have managed to obtain.
to reach the conclusion that;"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Again many thanks for your patience with my ideas, opinions and my friends, salamat.
To finally choose to will not to will, and simply to exist in a state of perfect indolence and listlessness.
In my present situation, " I no longer have any other rule of conduct than in everything to follow my propensity and inclinations without restraint."
To record in writing my daydreams and to savor select episodes from my past in the pages of my reveries, a good man lost in his thoughts, savoring anew those moments, brief and transient yet sweet. When I had felt most " perfectly free."
It is founded on daily Soul-searching, "one may say about this way of life what one will." People who take it seriously are distinguished in a way that is worthy of honor. They possess the highest qualities that a human being can possess, namely a calmness and pleasantness, an inner peace that can be disturbed by no obsession, passion or craze.
"The gentle but sensitive tranquility," of the philosopher is infinitely preferable to the euphoric elation and thrills dreamed of by the mystics.
His would be a philosophical life devoted to calm reasoning, impermeable by design to the caprices of strong feelings and unruly impulses.
All changes nowadays frightens me, even one that might offer a greater prospect of improvement in my circumstances.
All I have wanted is a situation in which my spirit, hypersensitive but in other respects carefree, and my body, more troublesome but never actually sick, can both be kept busy without being strained, and that is what I have managed to obtain.
to reach the conclusion that;"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Again many thanks for your patience with my ideas, opinions and my friends, salamat.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
THROUGH THE EYES OF ROUSSEAU
Rousseau brings into play in his second Discourse, his great principle for "judging properly," the principle of freedom. Evil is essentially artificial,a product of society. As a result, there is no reason to suffer evil at all.
Instead, one can strengthen one's will, in order to resist the injustices of civilisation, the unfairness, the economic and social inequalities and discrimination against whole segments of the population. And in this way attain a measure of virtue and fairness. We can also exercise our free will justly and righteously in concert with others, in order to change the laws and the unjust conventions that lead a people to accept living under conditions of grotesque inequality and lack of basic human freedoms.
The ending is up to the people, their historical destiny is, to an uncertain but critical extent, in their hands. Such is the significance of being free. By rising up against a regime that would instill only " the blindest obedience."
Rousseau reminds us, a people acts only according to the natural order, by reasserting its essential freedom, and whatever the outcome of these revolutions, a new beginning, or a relapse into bad habits, as we are witnessing with different aspects nowadays in some countries. No one can complain about someone else's injustice, but only of his own imprudence or his misfortune.
A new way of thinking about the human condition is appearing in the Arab world, despite the gloomy description of mankind's decline and fall. The principle of freedom dawned on the Arab world, and gave infinite strength to man, who thus perceived himself as great and limitless.
Inspired from a text by J. Miller about J.J. Rousseau. thanks for your patience and salamat.
Instead, one can strengthen one's will, in order to resist the injustices of civilisation, the unfairness, the economic and social inequalities and discrimination against whole segments of the population. And in this way attain a measure of virtue and fairness. We can also exercise our free will justly and righteously in concert with others, in order to change the laws and the unjust conventions that lead a people to accept living under conditions of grotesque inequality and lack of basic human freedoms.
The ending is up to the people, their historical destiny is, to an uncertain but critical extent, in their hands. Such is the significance of being free. By rising up against a regime that would instill only " the blindest obedience."
Rousseau reminds us, a people acts only according to the natural order, by reasserting its essential freedom, and whatever the outcome of these revolutions, a new beginning, or a relapse into bad habits, as we are witnessing with different aspects nowadays in some countries. No one can complain about someone else's injustice, but only of his own imprudence or his misfortune.
A new way of thinking about the human condition is appearing in the Arab world, despite the gloomy description of mankind's decline and fall. The principle of freedom dawned on the Arab world, and gave infinite strength to man, who thus perceived himself as great and limitless.
Inspired from a text by J. Miller about J.J. Rousseau. thanks for your patience and salamat.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
" TO LOVE... !!! "
What is real love ? I'll tell you what I think real love is. I'll draw you couple scenes, and then you can form your own conclusions.
What do most of us really know about love, it seems to me we just pass by love, and always begin love and end it as easily.
We say we love each other and we do, I don't doubt it. I love my wife and my wife loves me, and you guys love each other too, the kind of love I'm talking about, the physical love, the impulse that drives you to some-one special, as well as love of the person's being, his or her essence. Carnal love , and sentimental love, the day to day caring about the other person.
But sometimes I have a hard time accounting for the fact that one must have loved his first wife too, or her first date and dream boy. And we all did, I did, I know I did. So I suppose we're all alike in that respect.
" There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her memory." A friend once told me. How do we explain that ? what happened to all that love ?
I will hypothetically address a couple who met not too long ago, you love each other, it shows all over you, you glow with it. But you both loved other people before you met each other, you both could have been married before, just like some of us, and you probably loved your spouses very much and sincerely.
My wife and I have been married for many years now, and the terrible thing is, is that if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other person, would grieve for a while, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have some-one else sooner or later.
All this , all of this love we're talking about, would just be a memory, maybe not even a memory.
Am I wrong ?? Am I way off base ? because I want you, some-one, to set me straight if you think I'm wrong.
Inspired by R. Carver. And as usual thanks for your time and patience, salamat.
What do most of us really know about love, it seems to me we just pass by love, and always begin love and end it as easily.
We say we love each other and we do, I don't doubt it. I love my wife and my wife loves me, and you guys love each other too, the kind of love I'm talking about, the physical love, the impulse that drives you to some-one special, as well as love of the person's being, his or her essence. Carnal love , and sentimental love, the day to day caring about the other person.
But sometimes I have a hard time accounting for the fact that one must have loved his first wife too, or her first date and dream boy. And we all did, I did, I know I did. So I suppose we're all alike in that respect.
" There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her memory." A friend once told me. How do we explain that ? what happened to all that love ?
I will hypothetically address a couple who met not too long ago, you love each other, it shows all over you, you glow with it. But you both loved other people before you met each other, you both could have been married before, just like some of us, and you probably loved your spouses very much and sincerely.
My wife and I have been married for many years now, and the terrible thing is, is that if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other person, would grieve for a while, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have some-one else sooner or later.
All this , all of this love we're talking about, would just be a memory, maybe not even a memory.
Am I wrong ?? Am I way off base ? because I want you, some-one, to set me straight if you think I'm wrong.
Inspired by R. Carver. And as usual thanks for your time and patience, salamat.
Monday, May 30, 2011
ARAB "FAMILY REGIMES....."
In many Arabic countries nowadays, we are witnessing upheavals of large segments of the population, whether it turns more Islamic or more secular, young or older generations taking control, depends on each of the countries, i.e. Egypt and Tunisia are showing different paths from Libya, Yemen , or even Syria. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and some gulf states are different cases from the rest.
The causes that led to these upheavals, produced by degrees a sort of relaxation in the different constitutions of these regimes, those for whose interest it was to maintain this constitution held to it less, while those who had an interest in modifying it became bolder and stronger.
The rule of some regimes was therefore reconciled with that of the city, while some others reconciled with the heads of tribes, but these were in reality two antagonistic forms of governance which men could not hope to ally forever, and which must sooner or later be at war with each other.
The family regime, indivisible and numerous, was too strong, rich, and too independent for the social power not to feel the temptation, and even the need, of weakening it or even destroying it. Either the city or the tribe could not keep their side of the alliance, for it must in the course of time break up the family regime.
When authority ceases to appear just to the subjects, time must still elapse before it will cease to appear so to the masters. But this happens after a while, and then the master, who no longer believe in the justice of his authority, defends it badly, or ends by renouncing it.
An invincible necessity obliges the masters of different regimes, little by little, to relinquish or obliterate some or all of their omnipotence.
In some countries like Libya, Yemen and Syria, the regimes did no more than to preserve their authority and omnipotence, and in this alone was their gravest injustice; they maintained these laws and constitutions beyond the time when men accepted them without complaints, and maintained them against the will of the people.
It is therefore wise for these family regimes and masters to satisfy these men, their own interests united with humanity recommends concessions.
thanks as usual for your time and patience, and salamat.
The causes that led to these upheavals, produced by degrees a sort of relaxation in the different constitutions of these regimes, those for whose interest it was to maintain this constitution held to it less, while those who had an interest in modifying it became bolder and stronger.
The rule of some regimes was therefore reconciled with that of the city, while some others reconciled with the heads of tribes, but these were in reality two antagonistic forms of governance which men could not hope to ally forever, and which must sooner or later be at war with each other.
The family regime, indivisible and numerous, was too strong, rich, and too independent for the social power not to feel the temptation, and even the need, of weakening it or even destroying it. Either the city or the tribe could not keep their side of the alliance, for it must in the course of time break up the family regime.
When authority ceases to appear just to the subjects, time must still elapse before it will cease to appear so to the masters. But this happens after a while, and then the master, who no longer believe in the justice of his authority, defends it badly, or ends by renouncing it.
An invincible necessity obliges the masters of different regimes, little by little, to relinquish or obliterate some or all of their omnipotence.
In some countries like Libya, Yemen and Syria, the regimes did no more than to preserve their authority and omnipotence, and in this alone was their gravest injustice; they maintained these laws and constitutions beyond the time when men accepted them without complaints, and maintained them against the will of the people.
It is therefore wise for these family regimes and masters to satisfy these men, their own interests united with humanity recommends concessions.
thanks as usual for your time and patience, and salamat.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THINK OF IT !!
HAWKING : "THERE IS NO HEAVEN".
By John Rouch
Stephen Hawking, the famous British physicist, called the notion of heaven a "fairy story" in an interview with the Guardian newspaper published yesterday.
The physicist, 69, who was diagnosed with A.L.S. at age 21, made the heaven comment in response to a question about his fears of death. "I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he told the news paper.
I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when it's components fail. There is no heaven of after life for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people who are afraid of the dark.
The comments are seen as going beyond those in his 2010 book "the grand design," which stirred up passions with the observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God.
Hawking has far outlived most people who have A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig's decease, producing important cosmological research and writing books. His " A brief history of time," published in 1988, has sold more than 9 million copies.
The Guardian interview is the latest the scientist has given to news media in recent weeks. It is published the day before he is scheduled to address the question " Why are we here?" at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London.
In the talk , according to the Guardian, he will argue that the tiny fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged.
" Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.
In Arabic there's an expression that goes by " AKHOU EKHTOU." Meaning literally, the brother of his sister, or brother of your sister, I don't know why, or how, but it means that he is or you are the guy,the man, you're the one. So I would like to say to Stephen that he is " Akhou ekhtou " you're the brother of your sister, you're the MAN.
Let's think of it for a moment, the idea that us humans; for all times since the spontaneous creation, we, never really stopped hating or killing each other, daily, mostly for heavens sake.
The article by J.R. was on MS NBC site yesterday, the final conclusions are mine, thanks for listening and salamat.
By John Rouch
Stephen Hawking, the famous British physicist, called the notion of heaven a "fairy story" in an interview with the Guardian newspaper published yesterday.
The physicist, 69, who was diagnosed with A.L.S. at age 21, made the heaven comment in response to a question about his fears of death. "I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he told the news paper.
I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when it's components fail. There is no heaven of after life for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people who are afraid of the dark.
The comments are seen as going beyond those in his 2010 book "the grand design," which stirred up passions with the observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God.
Hawking has far outlived most people who have A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig's decease, producing important cosmological research and writing books. His " A brief history of time," published in 1988, has sold more than 9 million copies.
The Guardian interview is the latest the scientist has given to news media in recent weeks. It is published the day before he is scheduled to address the question " Why are we here?" at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London.
In the talk , according to the Guardian, he will argue that the tiny fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged.
" Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.
In Arabic there's an expression that goes by " AKHOU EKHTOU." Meaning literally, the brother of his sister, or brother of your sister, I don't know why, or how, but it means that he is or you are the guy,the man, you're the one. So I would like to say to Stephen that he is " Akhou ekhtou " you're the brother of your sister, you're the MAN.
Let's think of it for a moment, the idea that us humans; for all times since the spontaneous creation, we, never really stopped hating or killing each other, daily, mostly for heavens sake.
The article by J.R. was on MS NBC site yesterday, the final conclusions are mine, thanks for listening and salamat.
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