Thursday, April 01, 2010

Thoughts on pluralism

Pluralism is ten people in a room watching a Geico caveman commercial and all nine of them find it hilarious but the tenth one goes "God I have these commercials! they're so stupid" and there's a silence in the room and a couple of people politely leave to go to the kitchen shaking their heads, "holy shit." Pluralism is one guy out of 100,000 who likes his nuts tied up. Most of the time it's the minority who feels the strongest about his position (ok so you don't like the Geico commercials, shut up already!) and while we like to tout our pluralist society it's problematic. We even disagree on the essentials, what form of government we should have and instead of the Statue of Liberty maybe we should just have a giant phallic symbol in New York Harbor (I'm open to various metaphorical interpretations here, fire away). Pluralism by its very nature means lack of consensus, I mean Saty thinks the rest of us are nuts. There are folks who disagree with each other out of principle, the contrarian mentality. It's like Neo and Agent Smith, I'm the pole who has to combat your pole, I have to cancel you out and will disagree with you at every turn. You have these at work and it's not my imagination but some people actually feel threatened by you, by your competence, your intelligence. Call this the undertow but you can actually feel it, that vibe in the room, the resentment. Pluralism means working with some people who are spaced out all the time. Said to a guy at work the other day you ever get the impression everyone here is in LaLa Land and he agreed. They say pluralism is our strength but to me it also shows we honor and celebrate those with faulty thought patterns, I mean you don't know a fetus is a life yet?

What are your thoughts on pluralism?

11 comments:

  1. Makes ya wonder..pluralism seems to be a human condition. Robots can be programmed so they ALL laugh at Geico commercials.

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  2. Pluralism to me means we're in perpetual doubt about things, that we can never arrive at or form conclusions. The lack of consensus in society means that we are proceeding from vastly different premises e.g. big government is good or big government is bad. I think experience has shown over time that big government causes more problems than it solves so why do we keep going in this direction?

    BTW Happy Easter to you and all! might be my last day online until after the weekend.

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  3. Leaders are made of individuals who resisted the tug of popular sentiment.

    "A woman pilot? Surely you must be joking. Why that's a man's profession." (Dare to ask yourself how many times Amelia Erhart probably heard that]

    "A machine that will let you fly like a bird? Oh my...what a wacko idea." (Dare ask yourself how many times the Wright brothers heard this.)

    "A wireless motor you say? Surely Mr. Galt you can't be serious...."

    I think you get the idea.

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  4. Well, with all his anti-abortion work this time of the year: driving pregnant school-age girls to the clinic so they can undergo firsthand and fully experience the mistake of abortion themselves (without parental permission) and fund raising for PP (it’s “Planned”, right? that’s good…right?) and other obvious life-supporting actions…he really doesn’t have time to worry with citizenry who just don’t comprehend this health-fare concept and his ’stand’ for its important contribution to life, liberty and the pursuit of a few earmarks and ‘my 15 minutes’

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  5. I don't necessarily think you're nuts.

    I don't understand your thought process or the conclusions that you reach, and sometimes I can't follow this stream of consciousness thing you do, but I don't necessarily think you're nuts.

    Some of your visitors I'd call obtunded, but you? not necessarily so.

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  6. I'm a Right wing Christian - and I believe as a "true" Christian does and I happen to love my country. We're here to spread the LOVE of God.
    And I resent you calling us "Nuts"

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  7. Satyavati devi dasi said...

    I don't necessarily think you're nuts.

    I don't understand your thought process or the conclusions that you reach, and sometimes I can't follow this stream of consciousness thing you do, but I don't necessarily think you're nuts.
    Some of your visitors I'd call obtunded,
    ---------------------------------

    Is that a selective perception thing?
    Or were you referring to me?

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  8. It's because of moral relativism that we cannot come to consensus on things, in my opinion. Some things should be absolutes, but people use faulty moral codes to justify doing bad things, for example the death penalty.

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  9. I'm not against pluralism btw, it's what's made our country great but it also means lack of consensus as I've said. Oooh I feel a little stream-of-consciousness comin' on.

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  10. Maybe some people are too stubborn as well to admit when they are wrong. I often felt that way at Hannityland. I sometimes conceded points, but others never seemed to. You have that problem there, too?

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  11. Beth libs never ever concede points, it's a matter of style.

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