Friday, November 5, 2010

Good Intentions

Things seemed like they got a little heated tonight. When I arrived I tried to use a hand signal and was completely ignored (next time I'll try a bull-horn). Well, not completely ignored. Richard sort of shook his head resignedly and Garet just laughed at me. That's alright with me though because sometimes the hand signals actually interfere with the flow of debate and argument structure. However, I would like to point out something to everyone. Despite the fact that there are strong opinions and some radical differences amongst the SWEET scholars I feel like I can safely say that everyone there is well-intentioned. This is important to keep in mind when debating someone you disagree with as often these sort of debates tend to devolve into ad hominem attacks: "No, YOU suck!"

Michael and Sitara are good people (not so sure about Ed, though. ;-) ). They don't believe in laizze faire capitalism not because they are haters, but because they feel like it causes social injustices. That is well-intentioned.

David is a good person (also, he is not a Nazi). He believes in anarcho-capitalism as he believes that provides the most freedom, liberty and prosperity for people. That is well-intentioned.

It seems that the disagreement is only the method, not the intent. And for the most part everyone in SWEET scholars has been very academic or "professional" in the debating. Continue to do so, because ad hominem attacks don't strengthen your argument and only make it seem like you've run out of logical propositions.

Anyway, I do realize that now that I've played the politician and taken both sides everyone will hate me. ;) That's ok though, because you all suck and engineers make more money than economists and limo drivers. (But not lawyers, DAMN YOU MICHAEL!)

6 comments:

  1. Your hand signals were not ignored because of any attitude issues (we haven't used them for during the last two weeks). No hand signals seemed to work well when we discussed the friendly topic of collective action however maybe not so much last week. Whether they'll come back into action next week is unknown to me.

    Just letting you know though that we don't really hate you. So you can equate your utility with having us for a lot of friends rather than solely with your projected future income :-)

    Cheers though this is a good point you have made.

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  2. I don't even know who that guy is!

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  3. Also, Limo Drivers make more money than engineers. (Because we don't pay taxes...) :)

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  4. Hand signals are coming back this week. I feel the pregnant pause between comments allows those who are heated a little time to cool off and avoid going down the pleasurable path of Ad Hominem attacks. Also, the scarce discussion time is allocated more equitably.

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  5. I didn't mean to bring back the hand signals, but so be it.

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  6. Camilla, thanks for the reassurance. I was trying to be funny. I don't think anyone hates me and I'm exaggerating how much engineers make.

    Josh, I'm working on tax loop-holes.

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