JOE'S DANCE | 2006-07-26
If you want to understand my world view, one part of it is in my ongoing dialogue with Joe.
When you have been in this game as long as I have, you have long since run into a set of categories. I tell you about the people who call themselves "intellectuals" and boiled it dowon to "Nobody needs to call himself an "intellectual" unless he is insisting that his obvious absurdity is worth listenting to."
When I say, "Call HIMSELF an intellectual," said "intellectual" will say that he has never called hiumself an intellectual.
True. But the fact is that those of whom he approves always say that anyone who says he is talking crap declares that calling it crap is "anti-intellctual."
The same is true of the Weakest Generation. They did call THEMSELVES the Greatest Generation. When a write called them the Greatest Genreation they just bought millions of copies of it. The children they had brain=washed bought it by the million. Robert Dole never said he was a war hero. But the staff member who didn't say that over and over and over lost his job fest.
Joe, bless his heart, is definitelynot one of the drooling worshippers of The Greatest Generation.
Joe is one of another category, The Tough Old Guys.
I like Joe. He has the right instincts and he makes me think.
But it is critical to Joe that he never admit I taught him anything. So when he talked about the Big Book and I made a distinctionbetween that and Wordism, he ignored it and said my other comment was funny.
But the point is that I got what I can only get from Joe. He specifically said that the Big Book was a religion to a lot of people in the program nd I explained why the Big Book, properly used, is not Wordism.
The subtext here is that I got waht I wanted and Joe got what he wanted.
Joe didnot say, "Gee, Bob, you were right. I learned something here."
"Gee Bob" is not in a tough old man's lexicon.
Joe understands that he has something I need. That something is NOT some sort of agreement. I need his MIND, not his agreement. He makes me make points I ned to make.
Whenever I make a point, Joe dances away from it. When I make a point, the average libertarian/respectable conservative/leftist dances away from it. So what is the difference?
The difference is that when I hit back at a libertarian/respectable conservative/liberal/neo it's THE SAME DAMNED DANCE. I have been dealing with their dances for fifty years, and I am SICK of them.
Joe will never admit he was wrong about anything. He will never admit I taught him anything. That is just as well, because Joe knows I have heart trouble and a shock like that could put an end to this blog.
The question is, do I want Joe to say he learned some4thing from me or I won an argument?
I make it cery clear that I make lots of mistakes. I am not ego-driven. But one thing I hope everybody here takes for granted is that the last thing Bob is worried about is winning an argument.
NEVER worry about winning an argument.
I want to make points. I want people to forvce me to make points.
Joe is a mean old bastard who forces me to make points.
He's not about to change, and he knows that change is the last thing I want from him.
Us mean old bastards understand each other very well.