You ask a capitalist how he expects to survive without biodiversity, and he calls you a tree hugging communist. Defending yourself against the abuse of a vegan, you point out that you believe you have as much right to eat meat as a lion does to eat a gazelle, and he calls you a capitalist pig.

I think, that amidst the war and turmoil of the world at the moment, people are being whipped up into a frenzy of irrationality. It seems to me, that as the water around the frog is reaching boiling point, people are pedaling away at the taker mobile with a renewed, and alarmingly frantic urgency.

With extremist voices being heard the loudest in a time of war, I find myself desperately hoping for a period of calm, in which your message can be heard clearly, without being bludgeoned into submission by fear and the blind pursuit of reckless, idiotic leaders like Bush, Howard, etc.

What do you think? How can the turmoil of the world show people the inherent flaws in the taker lifestyle, rather than make them pursue it with an increased urgency?

People who have embraced my ideas often seem to have the notion that other people MUST recognize their validity. Christian evangelists have the same notion. What do you do when someone tries to convert you to Seventh Day Adventism or Mormonism or Marxism? You probably resist, and feel you have every right to do so.

You should recognize that other people feel they have the right to resist ideas that to you and me seem obvious. On the other hand, it’s obvious that not everyone’s mind is closed. Every day people who are open to something new are converted to Seventh Day Adventism or Mormonism or Marxism. And every day people who are open to something new embrace the ideas you and I would like to see them embrace.

But this never happens through coercion or argumentation. I personally have never known a single mind to be changed by argument. So someone calls you a tree-hugging communist. Why do you care what some closed-minded idiot thinks of you? Find people to talk to who AREN’T closed-minded idiots. They’re certainly out there.

ID: 629
posted:
updated: 08 Apr 2003