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From: jeq@laidbak.UUCP (Jonathan E. Quist)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Living Alone: Abnormal?
Message-ID: <196@laidbak.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Sep-85 00:45:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: laidbak.196
Posted: Mon Sep  2 00:45:29 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Sep-85 00:54:43 EDT
References: <1296@hound.UUCP> <5290001@acf4.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeq@laidbak.UUCP (Jonathan E. Quist)
Organization: LAI Chicago
Lines: 51
Summary: 

In article <1867@reed.UUCP> purtell@reed.UUCP (Lady Godiva) writes:
>In article <248@whuts.UUCP> amc@whuts.UUCP (Andy Cohill) writes:
>>> Andy Cohill:
>>> > >I have a better word: irresponsibility. For more closeness you get
>>> > >less irresponsibility. It gets confused with "freedom" very
>>> > >frequently. 
>>> 

[portions removed for brevity]

>	First of all, I don't think that you stated what you did as an
>opinion. If what you meant was "I think that living alone can make you
>more intolerant and less responsible" that's one thing, but what you said
>was that being single did not give freedom but irresponsibility,
>implying that those of us who live alone and like it that way are more
>irresponsible than those who don't. 

Excuse me, but compare the verbatim quote with your paraphrase.
It doesn't appear that Andy said being single gives one irresponsibility.
If I recall the original context correctly, the reference
was to having or not having roommates in general.
When I shared a house with 4 other people, I found that
I kept the extent of my own irresponsibility (I tend to
be a poor housekeeper) confined to my own room.
Now that I'm living alone...

I would interpret the quote as saying that living in
close quarters with someone, i.e. sharing some common
living space, requires that one controls one's
irresponsible tendencies to the extent that they don't
infringe upon another's rights.

Finally, regarding ``freedom'' and ``irresponsibility''.
Some years back I was painfully hurt by someone
who had these two concepts hopelessly muddled.  If
pointing out the fact that the generic term ``freedom''
is misused to the point of abuse manages to offend
a few people, I personally don't give a Flying Fortress.
Getting a few people to think is worth a few hurt feelings.
Anyone who would take "Irresponsibility is often confused
with freedom" to mean "All singles are irresponible"
is grievously in need of thought provoking anyhow.

Please take note:  I have not followed this newsgroup
for a week or two; I am reacting to the above quotes only,
and am not commenting on any intermediate dialog.
It's kind of too bad that I felt compelled to include
this disclaimer.

Jonathan E. Quist
ihnp4!laidbak!jeq