benlehman

Also, people are bad at listening. Many of us have trained ourselves or been trained to automatically jump on the first little bit we disagree with or have counter-evidence for, in anything we hear.

I wonder if some of it may also be that people (whether by nature or training, I am not certain) treat teaching differently when it is coming from someone they perceive as being 'in authority' versus someone who they do not. I suspect there is too much of a tendancy to listen too uncritically to those we are told are authorities/in authority ('I must be wrong'), and too critically to those we think are equal or unproven compared to ourselves ('They must be wrong, or they don't know how things are different for me').

Do you have a teaching text on Forge theory? I feel the problems I've had with Forge theory come in large part from a dearth of people presenting it as something that can be taught (with admittedly occasional exceptions), and instead as something that must be pre-understood, or accepted axiomically, and that people who do not innately understand or accept the theory are fools or blind.

It's also in the nature of the medium. There's no way to let you, or anyone else, know that they've read it other than piping up.

Furthermore, in any college class I ever took, it was assumed that, after reading something, it would be picked apart, not assumed as truth. This is doubly so when someone isn't otherwise established as an authority, as the above poster notes.

You're getting flack? From whom? I have to admit that that makes no sense to me, either (that you'd be getting flack for that).

I admit, I'd be fascinated to hear some elaboration of this, or at least some context to go poke at. There are lots of interesting potential responses to the question, but it's hard to say which are relevant. Cynically, I'd note that there is such an expectation of polemics that it's hard to convince people to expect anything else. :)

Er, who and where and about what specifically? Some context would be helpful in answering your question, otherwise the only real answer anyone can give without basically sitting and wanking in the open is: "Well, it could be for a variety of reasons."

I mean, we've already got people going, "Oh yeah, that's happening because people on the Forge are a bunch of chumps..." et al. and I have no way of knowing if that's even a valid criticism, or just an example of an assumption being used to indulge in some Forge-hatin' lookit' me sneerin' down my nose at group X and thus proving how cool I am crap.