Re: Shaming Redux (was Re: [Fwd: Culture and Technology (was Re: Abortion, Killing etc)]

[Andrew Wayne Austin <aaustin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 28 Aug 1999, Katha Pollitt wrote:

>You seem to assume people are just waiting to hear your opinion of their
>behavior, and that, at bottom, they share your ideas about how to live.
>Neither of these things are necessarily true.

Aren't you one to talk, Katha. Doesn't your livelihood rests on assuming
people want to hear your opinion and that they will share your ideas about
life?

In fact, both of us reasonably assume people want to hear our opinions and
that people share our ideas about how to live. People are not all Katha
clones or Andy clones. You and I, like many other people, compete to
influence people. We are in turn influenced by people who are competing
for our minds. That's the way the world is.

You are not special, Katha, as much as you and you fan club would like to
think so. So don't talk as if you live in an alternative universe where
the same rules don't apply; or if you intend to talk that way, you should
develop a different rhetoric because as it stands you are remarkably
transparent.

Both you and Doug carry this pompous attitude. Where does one pick up such
an ego? Is this the result of too much stroking?

Andy