In a message dated 2/17/99 1:10:25 PM Central Standard Time, konsler@ascat.harvard.edu writes:
<< Reed: lack of imagination error.
><< Being a slave to <reason> leads inevitably to delusion.>>
>The meaning that you find in these words, if any, is most certainly one that
>we will never share. You must share a different understanding of what some
>or all of the words "slave", "reason", "inevitable", and "delusion", mean
>than any that I am familiar with. Or if this is idiom, or metaphor, it
isn't
>one that I "get". This sentence came through as complete gibberish to me.
It
>is possible that I don't really even care to know what it means to you, but
I
>thought it would be polite to at least let you know that you made no sense.
Maybe you should think about how it might be true? I can only conclude that you aren't trying hard enough, becuase your posts lead me to deduce that you have the requisite intelligence.>>
Part of the problem here is that you were applying this phrase to me, << Being a slave to <reason> leads inevitably to delusion.>> and some sort of thought processes that you imagine occurring in my brain. Another part of the problem is that you are wrong about these imagined thought processes. And yet another part of the problem is that you attribute any difference between your imaginings and the actual thought processes to "semantic games" that you imagine that I am playing. And then of course the final problem is that the statement just doesn't make any sense.
I could if I wanted, imagine ways that some sense could be found in the statement, but I would have to say that it was very poorly worded. Considering all of the other problems that went into the statement, imagining a feebly sensible interpretation would at most add nothing to the situation, and at worst add even more confusion than is already there. I decline to waste time imagining things that very likely will only increase your confusion. Might as well imagine angels dancing on a pin.
-Jake