Friday, March 18, 2005

Your anger with me is only self-defeating

I have recently been the victimized subject of much hatred and disappointment from several emails and blog comments. They all have to do with my lack of updating this stupid site. First of all, what in the world are you expecting from me? The fact that you actually read other people's blogs as regularly as you do might point to a greater problem. Read a book if you are going to read. There are some good ones out there I hear. Second, Ok, I don't really have a second. Third, I apologize for my little outburst there. I should have learned by now that you never encourage your audience to continue reading if'n you insult them for doing so. Forgive me.

All that to say, the hostility that I have been receiving as of late is unjustified and furthermore, is self-defeating. For all the philosophy geeks, members of the Intellectually-Proud-and-Reformed-Theological-Legalists-and-Pharisees Club (IPRTLPC), and the upscale Wallstreet fat cats, you probably already know what the term "self-defeating" is. For the rest of us who have to consult dictionaries and other sources, let me spell it out.

Self-defeating is the term for an idea or statement that fails to live up to its own standards. For example, the claim, "There is no truth" is self-defeating because the very sentence claims to be true. Or another example, "It is impossible to know anything." Again, the statement seems to imply that you can at least know that the statement is true, defeating its very claim.

So how is your anger with me self-defeating? How does your anger with me for not posting more blogs fold back on itself and crush under its own weight? Well, maybe it doesn't. Maybe your anger with me isn't self-defeating after all.

But here are some things that are:

relativism
skepticism
empiricism
logical positivism
religious pluralism
rationalism
truncation

There are more, I'm sure. I will stop there. Two last thoughts in closing. 1. Read a book. 2. Forgive me.

Pledging to blog more often,
MT Howell

2 comments:

keely said...

Self-defeat is for suckers.

Anonymous said...

shut the F%$# up.