Bill, in response to your post way back on 13 Jul 07 - 10:59 PM...

I think you're a lot more emotional about your opinions than you imagine...if you're like the rest of us. And I think you are. All people are emotional about their opinions. They defend them as if they were defending their children.

"every time there is a difference of opinion, you use a version of that "everyone is just being subjective in their own way" line...

Yeah, that's right, I do. You know why? I'm a philosopher. I'm not a politician, and I am not playing "to win", because there IS nothing to win here as far as I'm concerned. I watch with wry amusement the folly, the overweening pride, the fear of "losing", the lack of humility, the utter pretentiousness of human beings (myself included) as we rant on about our precious opinions, and attempt to defeat the opinions of others.

It's like a bunch of monkeys chattering in a cage.

It is not differences of opinion that trouble me, Bill. It is the extreme arrogance with which people hold those opinions, and their deep lack of respect for those with whom they differ...furthermore, their almost total lack of real curiosity about any information that does not suit their own agenda.

We all know so little. We know mere fragments of the truth. We believe utter nonsense, passed on to us by our culture, our media, our schools, our civilization. We send people out to die for utter nonsense. We invent insane weaponry. We destroy Nature for profit.

Anyone here who has the humility to sometimes show some respect for people who are of a different opinion than himself about politics or UFOs or life after death or abortion or God or anything else...that person is someone I can enjoy listening to. Anyone capable of criticizing and honestly evaluating the automatic taken-for-granted, self-congratulatory BS and hypocrisy of the groups he normally identifies with and thinks he is a part of, whether he's a liberal or a conservative or whatever...I can appreciate what he's doing.

I can relate to it. People need to realize and face their own folly as well as the folly of others around them. If they did, we would not see any more wars.

Whoever did it, whoever was responsible, the destruction on 911 was the result of a group of people incapable of seeing any evil in themselves, but only in those whom they have defined as "the enemy". There are people like that in Washington. There are people like that in Al Queda. As such, they are blinded by their own argument. I'd say that's the case with most people, and it happens a microsecond or two after they start arguing about something. Why? Because they are very, very emotional and only rational within a narrowly selected range that suits their emotional agenda. If you limit your rationality within narrow enough confines, you can justify anything.