Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] OT Seth

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lee Flier <leeflier@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] OT Seth
  • Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:57:33 -0500

fdnokes@hotmail.com wrote:
Thinking something is right or wrong because of who said it is just not using
our own natural intelligence.
In its purest sense, yes, thinking something is right or wrong "because of who said it" is a logical fallacy - ad hominem. Adolf Hitler could say that 2+2=4 and it will still be true. :D Sure.

But that doesn't mean people don't get suspicious or defensive (and possibly with very good reason) about the sources of their information, if the source is somewhere way outside of their comfort zone. I'd wager that if somebody came to this list recommending that you read something they'd heard on the Rush Limbaugh show, you wouldn't be too inclined to read it. :D Perhaps you personally have attained a sufficient level of enlightenment that you could read something written by Mr. Limbaugh and be able to sincerely appreciate something he'd written which happened to be true. But I hope you get my drift here. I think the point would be lost on many people even if it were true. And so, perhaps, a wiser course would be to find a way to express the same idea in a way that doesn't immediately alienate anyone. Permaculture is already challenging enough to people's mindsets on many levels.

I think Toby is right that a lot of folks on this list probably are used to preaching to the already converted (or the "willing to be converted"), and maybe don't have the same perspective that I do, doing my "suburban aid work". :D Suffice it to say there is *no way* I could recommend a Seth book to the folks I deal with every day, and I don't think it would go over too well if I told them they "weren't using their own natural intelligence" if they couldn't appreciate the information, either. We're talking about people who still think I'm some kind of weird hippie chick just because I don't use chemicals in my garden. :D But fortunately there's no reason or necessity to recommend sources that anybody would find dubious.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page