From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Mar 28 2004 - 14:16:59 BST
Dan,
> Totally agree with "labels" being a saving grace. I guess what I was
> pointing to is more of a "labeling" of people's minds or directions.
> Labeling an automobile as a car I would call more of a...."naming". I was
> talking about the words atheists, liberals, catholics, etc...
> As I know they break things down but I believe that labels wind up
> being
> very hypocritical and leading. For example, the "Catholics" follow the
> bible (or are supposed to) yet every single one of them sins. Therefore,
> their "label" as Catholics tend to lead an outside source into thinking
> differently of them (maybe more wholesome?).
> I, for one, consider myself in the political world a "conservative
> liberal". Now we have 2 seperate "labels" that don't really coincide.
> Likewise, as I don't believe in a holy god I still do not consider myself
> an atheist...more of a "humanist"!
> What's your take(s)?
Labelling people I agree can lead to all sorts of wrong conclusions, but
by and large a necessary evil in order to get on with life and living. If
we stop to ponder every nuance of our words, the cooking and cleaning
would never get done.
I label myself a conservative bordering on libertarian, but am appalled by
a so-called conservative congress and conservative president spending
taxpayer's money like there's no tomorrow. So that leaves me in a
conservative no man's land, a man like you without a handy label. My guess
is that outside of a few rabid ideologues on both the left and right we're
all essentially label-less human beings.
So while I accept your point, to get on with life requires a certain
amount of short-hand thinking. Perhaps not always right, but inevitable.
Finally, as a "humanist" I wonder if you agree with the section of the
'Humanist Manifesto' I quoted in other posts?
Platt
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Mar 28 2004 - 14:22:28 BST