Baron Max said:
Please, Nameless, read that statement above carefully. Are you not implying/saying that YOUR comprehension is better than mine??? And is that not competitiveness on your part? If not, please explain how it isn't!
Dear Baron, I am merely sharing the view from my perspective. Not 'right', not 'wrong', not 'better', not 'worse', just
my experience.
I do understand how when one sees everything through 'competetive lenses' from one's perspective, that will 'color' one's perceptions of all else.
Trust me here, Baron, I'm not lying to you. Do you not find it even remotely possible that the words that you are interperting (judging) as 'competetive' might be able to be taken otherwise if you tried? If I offer my view, and you paint it as 'competition', that only makes it true in your mind, not in mine, but, if you are broadbrushing your universe with your perceptive 'paint', I understand your assertions. I just don't see things like that. Not 'better', not 'right', not 'wrong', just my experience..
I can't and wouldn't 'change your mind' about this, that's YOUR business, but you might make the attempt to 'understand' for your own 'database', nothing more. No competition, just a 'sharing', for what it's worth...
Hmm, trying to show that you're right and I'm wrong?
Simply? No!
That you know more than me?
Simply? No!
That your ideas are better than mine?
Simply? No!
And that's not competitive?
Simply? No!
Please explain.
Simply? No!
Do you ask, again, for explanation merely to argue because you 'know the truth' or want to understand another perspective? Not better, not worse, just.. 'another'. Does the possibility that another perspective, besides your own, that might be equally 'valid' as 'your's' somehow 'threaten' your 'hierarchy of judgements' (right, wrong, better, worse, best...), that there might be a valid reality where these 'judgements' are not a 'valid criteria' for categorization of everything?
All the words that I have on the subject have been spoken. If you choose to refuse to accept my proposed meaning for my own words, and do not wish to make the attempt to understand 'where I'm comming from', then thats fine, (I know that it is a 'stretch' at the moment) but I have run out of words on the subject. You certainly don't owe me anything, and whether you owe 'it' to yourself is your business.
One of the things that bothers the hell outta' me is that, from your posts, so many of you feel that racism is something that someone can just turn on or off at will!
Thnough not personally addressed to me, I'll offer... I don't think that anything that is so prevalent and 'bone deep' is 'easily' faced, much less 'dealt with'. The processes are always difficult and painful. The only folks that would think its east are the ones who have no experience in the 'process' besides 'intellectual.
Surely you can't believe that?!
Of course not, but don't let that stop you from your personal 'evolution'.
Racism is emotional, not intellectual
'Emotional beliefs' often seek 'intellectual validation'. (See religion.)
...even if a racist can actually see that his emotions are "wrong", he can't just turn off those feelings.
No, not 'just'. It takes work, but yes, you can form brand new neural pathways with the appropriate 'effort'. Emotions are 'connected' to 'neural connections' which can be changed. See the movie, "What the Bleep Do We Know?" for a good understanding of how the process works.
What do you have to lose?
If you think that a racist can turn off his feelings, then you must also believe that a manic depressive (or other such mental "illness") can turn off his feelings, too. Is that right?
It is your brain (hypothalamus) that pumps the peptides that you associate with 'feelings'. You do and can have conscious input into the process. It is more like an addiction than a 'mental illness' that we are talking about.
Whether it is worth the work or not is, again, strictly up to you. It is your life.
But please dont hate me (at least don't act it out on me) because I am a homely, Jewish, black, Afro-Mexican, Xtian fundamnentalist, lesbian woman.. with Chinese eyes...
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