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Old 06-17-2012, 08:04 PM   #495
hughrbeyer
Dojo: Shobu Aikido of Boston
Location: Peterborough, NH
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 653
United_States
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Re: Spiritual and i/p

Quote:
Tom Verhoeven wrote: View Post
Certainly you are only jesting here, are you not?

Because what you are suggesting here sounds like something very ugly if not dangerous; "To try to put everyone on the same level of validity is ridiculous". Are you aware of the fact that you share this opinion with some of the most infamous leaders in modern history?
This is quite an impressive straw man you've created here, from a measly bit of moldy hay.

It's our modern problem that we no longer believe in elites. These days no one is special; no one is an expert; an encounter between teacher and student is supposed to be a "dialog" between equals where the student of two month's point of view has as much validity as a teacher's of forty years.

I want no part of that. We are all equal before God; we are all equal at the ballot box; we are all equal in the courts. On the mat? I'm sorry--I know very well where I stand. And when those I've chosen as my teachers speak on subjects within their expertise I have no need to claim an "equal" place. Because such equality is a sham.

On the web it's a little harder to figure out who has expertise and who doesn't. But it is a community--which means you know people who know people; people you trust know people they trust. And when lots of trustworthy people have all begun to trust someone (or a set of people), it pays to listen. And if you don't know any of them?

Get out more.