It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. Jonathan Swift.I have little doubt that Swift meant this in a derogatory manner. But I take this quote as a bit of positive advice. Many things, such as subjective preferences, have nothing to do with reason, though sometimes we attempt to rationalize such preferences after the fact.
I hate the color pink. Ugly, ugly, ugly, in my subjective opinion. I didn't reason my way into that preference and nobody can reason me out of it. Swift's quote points out that it's pointless to try and that it's a good idea to figure what things are just preferences to avoid silly debates - like arguing about my aesthetic revulsion to the color pink.
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 203 of 203Harry knows all about history (at least his version of it) and this is about his favorite subject, unions, oppressed workers ...
erp;
Unless they work for the government, which never mistreats its workers.
Clovis;
With regard to Columbus I'm going by the public record. If he had secret knowledge, why not reveal it after the first voyage? Why call those islands the "West Indies" and the natives "Indians"? Why wouldn't one of the other Portugese navigators who knew speak up and grab some credit? Even if Columbus did have secret knowledge, it doesn't invalidate the critics who were responding to his public statements. Those were just wrong and skilled navigators of the time would have known that.
With regard to the social gigantism of the Space Shuttle, we have on the positive evidence side
* Massive project.
* Government funded.
* Government run.
* Economically non-viable.
* Used for national prestige.
On the counter side, we have ... Clovis says "you're nutsy".
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