[MD] Virulently meaningful?

[MarshaV]

Going to lurk for a while.



At 09:01 AM 9/9/2008, you wrote:
>[Marsha]
>I no longer think we have a shared understanding of "honesty" or 
>trust.  I just don't.
>
>[Arlo]
>So far the only thing gleanable from your posts is that you bind 
>"honesty" somehow to the gray matter the "self" inhabits. So no, I 
>guess we don't. Otherwise you'll have to elaborate for me where you 
>think my definition of "honesty" is different from yours.
>
>[Marsha]
>Do you think you're teaching us some jolting, grand lesson about the 
>self?  Do us simple misguided patterns need your guidance?   You make me laugh.
>
>[Arlo]
>I'm just stating my opinions on this. You can disagree, but I'd 
>prefer if you did so in an articulate and kind way. This is the 
>second mean little remark you've made to me. Why? Have I been 
>anything but kind to you?
>
>[Marsha]
>Call. I'm in Connecticut, not Pennsylvania.
>
>[Arlo]
>Setting up call forwarding is pretty easy to do. I've arranged it so 
>that if anyone calls from a number I don't recognize a gender-female 
>friend of mine will answer. C'mon, Marsha, people are going to 
>figure out we are personae sharing the same corporeal host after a 
>while, why keep up the illusion?
>
>Or are you of the belief that your words only matter if you 
>corporeal host is "different" from mine?
>
>[Marsha]
>Arlo, you do not need to justify what you do, JUST BE HONEST.
>
>[Arlo]
>When have I not been honest? If you say, "claiming that Marsha is an 
>alternate personae of Arlo", I'll let that stand. When else?
>
>[Marsha]
>Announce that you do not wish to be one integrated (conventional) 
>individual, but would like to assume multiple personalities.
>
>[Arlo]
>This describes everyone all the time. Why should I have to "announce" it?
>
>"Integration" here speaks to "continuity", and yes, I've already 
>said that we as social beings value continuity across the selves we 
>encounter. And we have tricks and devices we use to promote this. 
>I'm not sure what you mean by "conventional", unless you mean 
>someone who buys the "one body, one self" illusion.
>
>[Marsha]
>You could be Arlo(Krimel), or Arlo(SA) or Arlo(Margaret).  I might 
>find that acceptable.
>
>[Arlo]
>We're grateful you might find that acceptable. Please let us know. 
>But again I ask, how would finding out that "Arlo" and "SA" or 
>"Margaret" or "Krimel" share the same corporeal gray matter detract 
>from the Quality of their words? Tell me something, if I told you 
>that "Arlo" was just another fictional character created by the 
>personae you know as "Robert Pirsig", would that detract from the 
>books that personae has written? Add weight to "Arlo's" words? Would 
>you feel deceived? Why?
>
>What if you learned today that "Robert Pirsig" was a pen name used 
>by a woman known as "Marianne Smith"? What would that change about 
>the value of the words in "his" books? Would the MOQ suddenly be "wrong"?
>
>[Marsha]
>At least in your game all would know the rules you play by.
>
>[Arlo]
>At any given point in time we can only and always make the best 
>value judgements given what we know at that point. If you tie your 
>value judgements to the continuity of "selves" as they relate to a 
>corporeal body, then you are in for disappointment every time. Judge 
>the value of the words, not the "realness" of the messenger, which 
>is always a negotiated illusion.
>
>[Marsha]
>A particular author writing for multiple characters is not 
>deception.  It's understood as the nature of a novel and storytelling.
>
>[Arlo]
>Life is an ongoing novel and storytelling. We are all characters in 
>a narrative. I don't know where the "one body, one character" rule 
>comes from (well, I have guesses), but its one of the impossible 
>little fictions that serve us in some ways but hinder us when we 
>forget it is just convention and assume its some real condition.
>
>[Marsha]
>Arlo, what do you want?   I mean it.  Bottom line, what do you want?
>
>[Arlo]
>What difference does it make, "I don't matter", remember? "What do 
>you care what I think anyway? I don't even count... Right? I could 
>disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference. I might as 
>well not even exist [in this forum], remember?" (Bender*)
>
>* Arlo wonders do we attribute these words to the "John Bender" 
>personae, the corporeal body sometimes known as "Judd Nelson" which 
>spoke them, the screenwriter(s) who penned them? Does it matter really?
>
>
>
>
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Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.........
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