On 1/21/2011 12:19 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:26:25 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>
>> On 1/19/2011 8:56 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:28:07 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>>>
>>>> Why hedge the matter and say "some would say".
>>>
>>> Because while you believe there is no difference, some believe there
>>> is. Who am I to say they're (or you're, or - for that matter - I'm)
>>> wrong?
>>>
>> Its called "critical thinking". Apparently a practice that isn't taught
>> too well in colleges (never mind it should start in grade school:
>>
>> "After the full four years, 36 percent had shown no development in
>> critical thinking, reasoning and writing, according to the study, which
>> forms the basis of the new book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning
>> on College Campuses.""
>
> Sure, it's critical thinking, but just because people don't employ it the
> same way you do, that doesn't make it wrong.  There's nothing wrong with
> having a system that works for an individual to organize one's thoughts
> in a way that lets you think about them.
>
>> If you don't know how to interpret facts in the first place, you can
>> hardly, in the case of those people with the opinion there "is" some
>> huge difference, whine about someone else pointing out that there isn't
>> any. Right?
>
> Sure.  But at the same time, if you use a tool to help you organize facts
> so you can interpret them, that puts you in a position of being able to
> talk about the different interpretations, or seeing that there isn't any.
>
> Jim
Point is, usually the "method" goes hand in hand with the failure to 
learn the facts needed to make an effective decision. Odds are, the vast 
majority of people with Tarot cards *do not* use them as a system to 
work out what to do, based on knowing sufficient facts. They use them to 
derive what they want to see, usually for someone else, by cajoling 
people into giving them information (i.e. a magic trick, and not even an 
honest one, for either involved). There is a difference between someone 
that realized what they are doing, and does it for themselves, and the 
majority, who would never even question that it worked via magic, or one 
sort or another. The later isn't going to look for facts, examine their 
own premises, attempt to understand the real causes behind things they 
already "assume" to be true.

Basically, what I am saying is, a crutch can help you do something you 
can't, temporary or otherwise, when you need it. If you spend you whole 
life being told you *must* use a crutch to do things, eventually you 
stop trying without it, even if you don't really need it. The end result 
becomes that you are so reliant of the crutch, and so unaware of why 
your world view has been distorted, that there are, invariably, some 
things that you can never do, imagine doing, or understand how to do, 
since doing them requires putting down the crutch first.

I could care less if someone has an "alternative" way to process 
something to get a valid result. The problem is, most of this stuff was 
invented to get a *specific* result out of its users, practitioners, and 
even its teachers, and the end result has *never* been to question 
assumptions, understand how things work, outside of the sphere of 
explanations allowed by them, and curtail discovery. After all, "Idle 
hands are the devils play thing", is a concept that exists in just about 
every religion, cast system, or authoritarian vision, and the method of 
controlling them involves a) never letting anyone have time to question, 
and b) if they do, having convenient rituals, stories, and meditations, 
directed at making people accept the way thing are "supposed" to be, 
without questioning them.

This is the core of all such practices. That they can be adopted to do 
other things, if you know what they are, why they work, and honestly 
approach them, doesn't change the fact that virtually every single "true 
believer" in any of these things is still walking around with the 
crutch, convinced they can do nothing without it, and that their whole 
world view is only true, proper, and complete, if seen in relation to 
the existence of the crutch.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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