Posted by Racer on January 31, 2004, at 13:20:24
In reply to What 8 meant, posted by 8 Miles on January 31, 2004, at 10:07:16
By the way, Szasz is not only a crank, he's a well known, long time crank. His first book came out in the early '60s, and his entire platform is based on the whole "stop whining and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's your own fault you feel bad" bedrock. If you read anything he's written, or even read that dang debate transcript all the way through, you'll see that he's unlikely to win any thinking converts.
What worries me, though, is that unthinking converts might wander by and get sucked in. And if there's someone on the corner yelling that Szasz is demonic, those unthinking people might just be frightened into his doorway, where he can suck them in. Those same people, uninformed and probably uninterested, might be persuaded away from this sort of crank by a soft, soothing voice and an offer of a nice hot cup of tea. Does that analogy make sense to you?
I guess I'm saying, "Can't we all just get along? Come sing Kumbaya with me, and then we'll come up with a really good coolheaded argument against The Devils..."
And I've also got the personal thing, too, since my family is from Hungary. Szasz is an Hungarian name, and I hate to think One Of Our Own is an idiotic jerk.
poster:Racer
thread:306610
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040131/msgs/307739.html