Things People Didn't Say...
... but that are inescapably implied by things
they did say.
Sometimes you hear someone say something that on
the face of it seems not particularly unreasonable, but on thinking about it
longer than they did you notice that there's a deeper meaning which can't have
been not-meant if the original statement was sincere. A list of things I've
heard people say "not in so many words" this
year:
1) My subjective preference is so
obviously optimal that everyone should be aggressively encouraged to conform to
it even though reproducible objective data recommend an
alternative.
2) It's wrong for other
people to impose their inherently unprovable beliefs on me. Imposing unprovable
beliefs is my job.
3) I consider myself
superior to this diverse group of people identified by an irrelevant
characteristic because I believe without evidence that they as a group consider
themselves superior to me.
4) The sum
of things I currently believe define what is real and/or
possible.
5) The fact that I do not
perceive benefit to myself in this object/process/change means that it has no
value. Anyone who claims to perceive value for themselves is wrong and therefore
an idiot or sycophant.
6) If you don't
actively cater to me, you are attacking
me.
7) I know nothing meaningful about
this person, nor any of the circumstances of their life, other than that they
engage, for reasons unknown to me, in a harmless activity of which I personally
disapprove. Based on this, I shall judge that this person is in the wrong in any
conflict in which they are involved.
8)
Despite have spent no time researching, or even thinking about, this topic I
remain steadfast in my belief that no-one have a more valid perspective on it
than I who is not paid to do so. And most of them are wrong,
too.
9) I do not have the slightest
clue what you're saying, but I will defend to the death my right to say you're
wrong.
Posted: Sun - April 9, 2006 at 09:30 AM