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From: dm_johnson@manana.DEC
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: You only help him......
Message-ID: <405@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Mon, 13-Jan-86 08:57:36 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.405
Posted: Mon Jan 13 08:57:36 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jan-86 07:54:07 EST
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Ken Arndt. 

I had the privilege of working with Ken for about a year. My ranting
and raving at him then was over politics. And sometimes religion. If you
think his attitude towards gay culture is poor..... After awhile I
realized that, despite his protestations, he mostly doesn't care about
the content of what occurs. He cares about the process. 

One thing that conservatives have on their side is facts. Lots of facts. 
They are mostly grounded in the past and unwilling to try new things. 
They tend to get involved in pseudo lawyer debates calling up historical 
references in support of their position. Pity the poor liberal who can 
only call up statistics and say "I think the trend is there and the idea
is good and it deserves a chance." 

Generally, you will find conservatives a very fearful people. They have 
much to lose and need strokes to believe they are "ok" and won't lose
what they have. That is why the idea of a chaotic universe, as opposed
to a God determined universe, is so threatening. That is why they like
history and use it as support so much. "This worked before so it must be
right." Being able to argue with solid, historically based facts is
actually giving them strokes that they are ok. They are ok because they
are winning an argument, their philosophy is the right one after all, 
and they have nothing to worry about.

I've only somewhat recently joined motss and have seen that Ken uses the
same technique here. He protests that all he really wants is dialogue 
and the chance to learn from others. In reality, he phrases his 
communications in such a manner that he closes communication before it 
ever gets started. Then as people, in anger,  spit and sputter towards
him he can act cooly and logically, getting reinforcement that he is ok 
and "they" are not. 

So the content is not so important but the process is. Why else would
one hang around a group with a philosophy so diametrically opposed to
his own. Why else would one harass ( or bait) from the relative safety
of a terminal rather than face to face. Why else would someone be so out
of touch with feelings and heavily involved with logic. 

One persons thoughts.


Denny

ps - Mark me as one of the bisexual sane bunch.