Let’s not talk about the actual position you might hold on any matter. Instead, let’s talk about your position on any position, on the very act of having a position and on the idea of having a position. What is your position on positions?
We don’t consciously formulate all our ideas. We adopt many because to formulate all would require all our time and the thought equivalent to an encyclopedia of philosophy. It’s easier for us to adopt from those who influence us, from significant events in our lives, and from perspectives driven by self preservation—the last including matters of life and death, threats and rewards, and competition and cooperation.
I know, those all seem general and vague. I wrote them that way for a reason. I’m not the guy (the guru) on the mountaintop. I’m the guy at the bottom of the mountain who says, “I’m not sure, but you might find the answers you seek a bit higher on the mountain, possibly not any lower than the top. By the way, in all honesty, I should tell you that I have never completed the climb. I wanted to see what’s up there, but either I lacked the will or the energy at the time. My climb has been virtual, a video game search for the truth and for positions I could defend against any challenges. At times I think all my positions are like sequel editions of video games, supposed improvements in appearance without improvements in substance. In fact, I’m not sure if I recognize a position I have that doesn’t have an indefinite edge or an intrusive bubble of an adjacent or opposing position. I might be like that Cosmic Microwave Background Image of the universe 300,000 years after its formation, a collage of hotter and colder spots, with an identified “cold spot” representing hypothetically the intrusion of another universe, a bubble pushing through my own bubble of formation and development.”*
“Wow!” you say. You’re usually relatively concrete in your writing, but this stuff is off-the-chart esoteric. Get back to making all those analogies you’ve been writing for your blog, the life lessons and observations that we can use as points of departure for our own thinking.”
“Sorry. Here’s the problem. If I write about a particular position that you find offensive, will you stop reading me? How do I know what your position on positions is? Find a position offensive? Do you react emotionally? After all, isn’t finding anything to be offensive a matter of emotions? Or, is your position on positions that regardless of the emotional response, regardless of how you feel because of experience and culture, you look for and analyze the reasons behind all positions? Or, is this in itself an unreasonable position on positions because no one can seemingly hold any position on anything without some emotional involvement? Have you been incommunicado during the rise and proliferation of extreme positions as expressed on social media and on talk shows? Apparently, for every position there is an opposite one or an intrusion of a different thought bubble. So, I guess what I asked at the beginning is what I ask now, ‘What is your position on positions?’”
* http://www.ibtimes.com/cold-spot-universes-cosmic-microwave-background-may-have-exotic-origin-2530615
We don’t consciously formulate all our ideas. We adopt many because to formulate all would require all our time and the thought equivalent to an encyclopedia of philosophy. It’s easier for us to adopt from those who influence us, from significant events in our lives, and from perspectives driven by self preservation—the last including matters of life and death, threats and rewards, and competition and cooperation.
I know, those all seem general and vague. I wrote them that way for a reason. I’m not the guy (the guru) on the mountaintop. I’m the guy at the bottom of the mountain who says, “I’m not sure, but you might find the answers you seek a bit higher on the mountain, possibly not any lower than the top. By the way, in all honesty, I should tell you that I have never completed the climb. I wanted to see what’s up there, but either I lacked the will or the energy at the time. My climb has been virtual, a video game search for the truth and for positions I could defend against any challenges. At times I think all my positions are like sequel editions of video games, supposed improvements in appearance without improvements in substance. In fact, I’m not sure if I recognize a position I have that doesn’t have an indefinite edge or an intrusive bubble of an adjacent or opposing position. I might be like that Cosmic Microwave Background Image of the universe 300,000 years after its formation, a collage of hotter and colder spots, with an identified “cold spot” representing hypothetically the intrusion of another universe, a bubble pushing through my own bubble of formation and development.”*
“Wow!” you say. You’re usually relatively concrete in your writing, but this stuff is off-the-chart esoteric. Get back to making all those analogies you’ve been writing for your blog, the life lessons and observations that we can use as points of departure for our own thinking.”
“Sorry. Here’s the problem. If I write about a particular position that you find offensive, will you stop reading me? How do I know what your position on positions is? Find a position offensive? Do you react emotionally? After all, isn’t finding anything to be offensive a matter of emotions? Or, is your position on positions that regardless of the emotional response, regardless of how you feel because of experience and culture, you look for and analyze the reasons behind all positions? Or, is this in itself an unreasonable position on positions because no one can seemingly hold any position on anything without some emotional involvement? Have you been incommunicado during the rise and proliferation of extreme positions as expressed on social media and on talk shows? Apparently, for every position there is an opposite one or an intrusion of a different thought bubble. So, I guess what I asked at the beginning is what I ask now, ‘What is your position on positions?’”
* http://www.ibtimes.com/cold-spot-universes-cosmic-microwave-background-may-have-exotic-origin-2530615
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