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Wide Open Mind

This thing from The Onion a few years ago speaks for itself:

Open-Minded Man Grimly Realizes How Much Life He's Wasted Listening To Bullshit
The Onion
Vol 47 Issue 50
February 26, 2011

From the article:


A visibly stunned and solemn Richman, who until this point regarded his willingness to hear out the opinions of others as a worthwhile quality, estimated that he's wasted nearly three and a half years of his existence being open to people's half-formed thoughts, asinine suggestions, and pointless, dumbfuck stories.

"Jesus Christ," said Richman, taking in the overwhelming volume of useless crap he's actively listened to over the years. "My whole life I've made a concerted effort to give people a fair shake and understand different points of view because I felt that everyone had something valuable to offer, but it turns out most of what they had to offer was complete bullshit."

. . .

According to Richman, he started thinking about how much time he's flushed down the toilet being an approachable person after a work meeting in which he let a coworker, David Martin, ramble on and on with an idea everyone knew was "total shit" the moment the man opened his mouth. Richman said that a single glance at the clock made him realize he had just spent 14 minutes of his finite time on earth not playing with his kids or being with his wife, but listening to garbage.

"It was like I stepped out of my body and saw myself actually listening to this man's worthless drivel—but it wasn't him who looked like a moron, it was me," Richman said. "I was nodding my head like an asshole and saying ridiculous things like, 'Right,' and, 'I see your point, Dave,' when I should have just said, 'Dave, your idea isn't good and you are wasting our time and you need to shut up right now.'"

. . .

While Richman has vowed to cease being open-minded to absolute horseshit, acquaintances reflected on his approachability.

"I love Blake," coworker David Martin said. "He's such a good listener. A lot of people are closed-minded and self-absorbed, but Blake always makes an effort to hear where I'm coming from. The world could use more people like him."

I'm not even going to think about the amount of bullshit I've read--and written--in forum posts.

I might get depressed.

:)

Michael

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Most of the B.S. I wasted time listening to was in Catholic Elementary School.

-J

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Most of the B.S. I wasted time listening to was in Catholic Elementary School.

-J

I was just mentioning yesterday to a friend that we had "released time" at my NY public school. A school bus would pick us up on Wednesday afternoon and take us to our local Catholic Church for indoctrination.

I always found it amusing.

A...

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Most of the B.S. I wasted time listening to was in Catholic Elementary School.

-J

I was just mentioning yesterday to a friend that we had "released time" at my NY public school. A school bus would pick us up on Wednesday afternoon and take us to our local Catholic Church for indoctrination.

I always found it amusing.

A...

I remember the buses dropping off the kids from a public school near-by, once a week.

They were there to be "saved" by the fanatical nuns.

-J

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Most of the B.S. I wasted time listening to was in Catholic Elementary School.

-J

I was just mentioning yesterday to a friend that we had "released time" at my NY public school. A school bus would pick us up on Wednesday afternoon and take us to our local Catholic Church for indoctrination.

I always found it amusing.

A...

I remember the buses dropping off the kids from a public school near-by, once a week.

They were there to be "saved" by the fanatical nuns.

-J

They could be scary looking if you were prone to being intimidated.

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Most of the B.S. I wasted time listening to was in Catholic Elementary School.

-J

I was just mentioning yesterday to a friend that we had "released time" at my NY public school. A school bus would pick us up on Wednesday afternoon and take us to our local Catholic Church for indoctrination.

I always found it amusing.

A...

I remember the buses dropping off the kids from a public school near-by, once a week.

They were there to be "saved" by the fanatical nuns.

-J

They could be scary looking if you were prone to being intimidated.

I was at the end of several slaps during each grade. My unspeakable crimes were usually talking out of turn, forgetting to bring my rosary beads to class or arriving late for Sunday Mass. The worst punishment I can remember was the result of talking during Mass while the priest was doing his stand-up (preaching) to the flock. It must have been in December because I was ordered to write the Xmas Mass (it's very long, if you remember) & have it at school the next day. Additionally I was told to immediately go to the convent where I was to kneel on a wooden pew (ouch, my knees) & say the entire rosary. After that I spent the rest of the day and well into the night writing that dam Mass. Those nuns were nasty.

-J

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Most of the B.S. I wasted time listening to was in Catholic Elementary School.

-J

I was just mentioning yesterday to a friend that we had "released time" at my NY public school. A school bus would pick us up on Wednesday afternoon and take us to our local Catholic Church for indoctrination.

I always found it amusing.

A...

I remember the buses dropping off the kids from a public school near-by, once a week.

They were there to be "saved" by the fanatical nuns.

-J

They could be scary looking if you were prone to being intimidated.

I was at the end of several slaps during each grade. My unspeakable crimes were usually talking out of turn, forgetting to bring my rosary beads to class or arriving late for Sunday Mass. The worst punishment I can remember was the result of talking during Mass while the priest was doing his stand-up (preaching) to the flock. It must have been in December because I was ordered to write the Xmas Mass (it's very long, if you remember) & have it at school the next day. Additionally I was told to immediately go to the convent where I was to kneel on a wooden pew (ouch, my knees) & say the entire rosary. After that I spent the rest of the day and well into the night writing that dam Mass. Those nuns were nasty.

-J

I do not believe I would have done well in that environment.

I went to Catechism for the Communion and Confirmation steps and the Confirmation crap of kneeling to a drunk Irish Priest did it for me.

Again they were on pretty shaky ground having excommunicated my father for being a Mason...

Also, joining the Army of God did not convince me at all.

A...

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I hear you Adam.

What I couldn't figure out, in addition to the other rants, was the Immaculate Conception fairy tale and the Holy "Ghost" concept.

A virgin giving birth and an unseen "ghost" being "holy". Geez, the yarns they spun.

-J

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Wide Open Mind

This thing from The Onion a few years ago speaks for itself:

Open-Minded Man Grimly Realizes How Much Life He's Wasted Listening To Bullshit

The Onion

Vol 47 Issue 50

February 26, 2011

From the article:

A visibly stunned and solemn Richman, who until this point regarded his willingness to hear out the opinions of others as a worthwhile quality, estimated that he's wasted nearly three and a half years of his existence being open to people's half-formed thoughts, asinine suggestions, and pointless, dumbfuck stories.

"Jesus Christ," said Richman, taking in the overwhelming volume of useless crap he's actively listened to over the years. "My whole life I've made a concerted effort to give people a fair shake and understand different points of view because I felt that everyone had something valuable to offer, but it turns out most of what they had to offer was complete bullshit."

. . .

According to Richman, he started thinking about how much time he's flushed down the toilet being an approachable person after a work meeting in which he let a coworker, David Martin, ramble on and on with an idea everyone knew was "total shit" the moment the man opened his mouth. Richman said that a single glance at the clock made him realize he had just spent 14 minutes of his finite time on earth not playing with his kids or being with his wife, but listening to garbage.

"It was like I stepped out of my body and saw myself actually listening to this man's worthless drivel—but it wasn't him who looked like a moron, it was me," Richman said. "I was nodding my head like an asshole and saying ridiculous things like, 'Right,' and, 'I see your point, Dave,' when I should have just said, 'Dave, your idea isn't good and you are wasting our time and you need to shut up right now.'"

. . .

While Richman has vowed to cease being open-minded to absolute horseshit, acquaintances reflected on his approachability.

"I love Blake," coworker David Martin said. "He's such a good listener. A lot of people are closed-minded and self-absorbed, but Blake always makes an effort to hear where I'm coming from. The world could use more people like him."

I'm not even going to think about the amount of bullshit I've read--and written--in forum posts.

I might get depressed.

:smile:

Michael

The famous science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon proposed his Axiom: 90 percent of everything is crap.

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The famous science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon proposed his Axiom: 90 percent of everything is crap.

Great writer.

"It means 'Ask the next question.' It's the symbol of everything humanity has ever created, and is the reason it has been created. This guy is sitting in a cave and he says, 'Why can't man fly?' Well, that's the question. The answer may not help him, but the question now has been asked. The next question is what? How? And so all through the ages, people have been trying to find out the answer to that question. We've found the answer, and we do fly. This is true of every accomplishment, whether it's technology or literature, poetry, political systems or anything else. That's it. Ask the next question. And the one after that." - Theodore Sturgeon

The symbol of the Q with an arrow through it was used by Sturgeon in his signature after the mid-1970s. He also wore it as a necklace. The symbol appears on the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial award for the year's best science ficiton story, given at the Center for Science Fiction.

anqLg.png

http://www.theodoresturgeontrust.com/

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On the contrary, I find time I spend making some young person aware of Objectivism and the pro individual freedom movement to be time well spent when it appears to be appreciated.

Today a truck pulled up and a few minutes later the doorbell rang. It was a young lady whose job it is to spray the trees in town to kill the moths / caterpillars which are eating the leaves. In the process of showing her access to the trees I asked her when she graduated and where she went to college. I asked her if she had heard of Students For Liberty or Young Americans For Liberty when she was a college student. She hadn't but was interested in knowing more about them.

Before she finished the spraying I gave her a copy of the two pages of suggested reading list of books on a variety of subjects which includes Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, von Mises, Rothbard, Bastiat, G.H. Smith, Harris, Dawkins, Hayek, Hazlitt and so on, with links to O.L and others. I carry around copies of my list of books and links for just such opportunities.

I would have felt it would have been a wasted opportunity if I hadn't done so!

The www.studentsforliberty.org website has a link to their annual report which shows that their growth does appear to be close to exponential since 2008. SFL is all over the world on every continent with a growing number of student leaders, groups, campuses and attendees at their conferences. There is certainly the promise of continued growth with no end in sight. That means that they will ultimately be on virtually every high school and college and university campus in time, with a massive alumni section growing into the millions and tens of millions.

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