Subject: RE: Medicine is a noble profession -- civility

[Guest guest]

Among the many well put thoughts already appearing here, a couple I haven't

seen (or missed):

 

Western intellectual life is built upon contention, skepticism, challenge.

Sometimes called dialectic. The civility ground rule is that the ideas or

logical processes are fair game as the object of questioning (aka attack),

as distinct from the person who voices them.

 

Then there's interpretation and misinterpretation. And reading a straw-man

arguments into what another has voiced, when not paying close attention to

the original intent, or not just inquiring as to what they meant more

precisely. With dismissal of some statement as " stupid " or with other

emotive language, it's often hard to tell whether it is directed at the

idea or the person. And it's easy to react as if it were the latter.

 

As I've noted before, it appears to be an inherent quality of

internet/email/listserv type communication that participants will often

behave here with less restraint than in person or other traditional forums.

At the extreme, the phenomenon of " flaming " , as Attilio notes.

 

In the theory of mindfulness meditation, the nature of the mind is to make

distinctions, judgments, sometimes called " making war " , and that the mind

is a magnificent tool, but a horrible master.