There are times...

[lithera]

... when someone says something so obviously disconnected from the world I live in that I would love to be able to pry open their heads and take a look inside. How did you get to where you are? What does it mean, what you said? Does what I think what you said have a true connection to what you think you said? Is there any common middle ground to how we see the words and the meanings behind them? How is this statement one that you can make seriously?

There was a time, in college, when I actually studied a few people who I didn't understand, in order to attempt to get at least the pillar points of their views for better chances of understanding. Sometimes I managed and some times I didn't. There are some people who aren't forthcoming enough about internal thought processes to be able to do it.

Now, I really just don't have the time to dedicate, alas.

Well, that and the people I'd like to prod at are far too far away.

Comments

[apestyle.livejournal.com]

Any chance that you'll elaborate?

[lithera.livejournal.com]

In what way?

[apestyle.livejournal.com]

Well for instance, what did the person say that bamboozled you?

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Ah. There have been a number of comments in the last month or so. The most recent being Pat Robertson and his crazy Haiti pact with the Devil statement. Others about have been about relgiion, race, privledge... Learning about how other sees the world makes me realize what filters I have in place too. Sometimes you don't even realize how who you are and what you've seen color your world view. I like to be able to see those filters, even if I can't get rid of them.

[apestyle.livejournal.com]

Oh that Pat Robertson thing...I don't know if:
a). he believes what he's saying
b). he's going for ratings
c). he's gone insane

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

I'd add

d) Probably senile

to that list.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Well, that's part of what I'd like to know. Does he really believe that? If so, what shaped those beliefs? How can he live in a world where he thinks that is true and I live in a world where that sounds impossible and have that be the same place.

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

I felt like that watching the Tuesday Daily Show. I really wanted to find out more about the "Satan's Jews" guy and the "gay marriage leads to more abortions" guy and the logic/emotions/etc. that they have to get to those positions. (And what the difference between a G-d-ly Jew and a Satanic Jew is.) I *really* appreciated Wyatt going back to the Satanic Jew guy and asking him what he thought about the Chasiddim who had also been protesting gay marriage.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yeah. I want to understand these people and why they think what they think.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

When I was in Las Cruces, a fellow math grad student once said that he wouldn't eat at another student's house because she was an out lesbian and therefore it would be a sin to break bread with her. It led to a long conversation where I kept trying to reductio ad absurdum him only to have my ridiculous examples meet agreement with him, including that in his ideal world most of the people he knew would be dead, myself included.

The conversation ended with:

Me: So basically your only problem with Hitler is that he targeted the wrong people.

Him: Well, yeah, actually.

Me: I guess I can't argue anymore then. Let me know if you need help with the Galois Theory homework.

He was a nice guy if you could get beyond his insane beliefs.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Wow.

That sort of stuff fascinates me.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Me too, hence the hour long quite civil conversation in which he explained why certain people should be put to death lest they convince others to reject Xianity and lead people to hell...

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Humans are strange.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Especially in the graduate department of a mathematics department. We were all dysfunctional in our own ways...

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

I think we're all dysfunctional and it is really a matter of how different our dysfunction is from the average that determines how dysfunctional we appear.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Well I, for one, would like to be closer to the middle of the bell curve at times...

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I can understand that.

[arctures.livejournal.com]

I know how conversations like that feel. One time during a really long, boring shift when I was working retail, I was telling my co-worker about some new scientific discovery.

Him: Oh, all scientists are just atheists trying to disprove the existence of god, that's all bullshit.

Me: ...

He was serious about it, too. The funny part is, we were working at a /Gamestop/ at the time. Surrounded by... technological entertainment... and he was an avid gamer. Who thought that science = atheism.

I was utterly baffled by his viewpoints.

[grymor.livejournal.com]

While in principle I support the "pry open their heads" approach, in practice, I can not recommend it as I find your continued freedom to be more valuable to me than potentially understanding them and the likely side effects of attempting to understand them by peeling apart their skulls.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Well, not physically. I don't know as I'd learn much very quickly to literally do it.