ML told me that I judge people too quickly, but I contradict myself when I say people misunderstand me. I know all I need to know about a person after observing them once in the weightroom, but I complain that people do not know me. She has a point.
My reality is what I see. I see differently than most people. Shop with me at a grocery store, and I will see things that most people never notice. I evaluate people's actions. But, I do it everyday. I judge people everyday. I do not discriminate. Their past actions are information, but I care more about their actions today than yesterday. My goal is to discover Truth.
One needs to know what is, but they have to draw on what is to say what should be. Positivism without normative conclusions is futile. It is purely intellectual masturbation without climax.
Most of my colleagues have been duped into half-hearted positivism. They do not see actions. Sometimes they try to see intentions. Hayek proved the impossibility of seeing intentions in The Road to Serfdom. Other times they refuse to see reality, prefering to see what they want to see.
They also refuse to draw conclusions. They believe that everything is okay except being proud of who you are. They champion self-sacrifice and failure. They prefer mediocrity to success.
I want people to misunderstand me. During my high school statistics class, I decided I wanted to live in the tails. I wanted to be more than two standard deviations from the mean. This desire guarantees that people will misunderstand me. I have to accept this fact and direct any complaints at myself.
But, I get discouraged that people do not see my actions. ML has never seen me treat another person wrongly. I question her friends' actions, but I listen to her defense of them. I would listen to their rebuttals if I was not worried about living in the tails. My observations have made her think, and her replies and her friends' actions have made me reevaluate. This does not mean that I should forget. My observations have Truth in them.
ML does not understand that I love people as much as she does. But for me, giving people free passes, ignoring their shortcomings, and writing off their failures as humanity is unacceptable. Humanity requires us to question everyone's (including our own) actions.
That is why I appreciate ML criticizing me.
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2 comments:
I realize that I now live in a world of what is. It is surprisingly surreal. Why should I care anymore? There is no challenge to thought or doctrine, peoples' pasts are not an issue. The actions of today speak only for the short-term future. Statistics is for a bunch of pussies. There's no challenge beyond interpreting the data.
What can someone do for you today?
And "Big Man", I feel for a man who cannot picture a beautiful woman naked. It's a beautiful thing. You should watch the movie "Spanglish". Latin women are so ...there is not a pronounce that gives as much praise as they deserve and staring is the only to look at a beautiful women.
Thankfully, I have gotten over the naked woman thing. Maybe it really was just a sinus drop.
The one thing I have learned this semester is that doing statistics correctly limits what you can say. Most statistics is bullshit. A good statistician can prove anything he wants. He can also disprove anything he wants.
I watched Spanglish on a plane to the Philippines. The maid/mother (Luz?) is a beautiful woman. There was also a Filipina and Japanese stewardress who made me want to stay on that plane forever.
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