[Vision2020] Pooh performs another valuable public service

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Michael:

This is AKA the Straw Man Argument.  This is a deliberate rhetorical 
strategy.  If you can create your own opponent, name him and define 
him, then you know for a certainty that you can knock him down.  It 
doesn't matter what we actually write; the Kirk has a script written 
for us.  If we deviate from that script -- and we do -- they ignore 
what we've actually said and return like a boomerang to the official 
and sanctioned text.  We are not individuals, Michael; we are infidels. 
  We should not have the gifts of the spirit: art, beauty, knowledge and 
the ability to write and speak clearly and cogently.  That we clearly 
do have these gifts and more puts the lie to the entire Wilson Reformed 
enterprise.

Do you remember all of those newspaper advertisements in response to 
the 2003/2004 controversy over Southern Slavery: As It Was?  They had 
nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand; instead, they were all 
about the infidels' inability to appreciate fine wine, fine food, or 
good humor.  Doug Jones, official Princess of the Kirk, wrote that ad 
copy.  It made no sense to me at the time: Michelangelo was gay, 
therefore he couldn't appreciate fine art?  Lily Tomlin isn't funny?  
There's no such thing as a Buddhist chef?  Christians and 
non-Christians alike are clearly blessed with the gifts of the spirit.  
The evidence is all around you.  But if you're a member of Wilson's 
circle, you cannot accept that.  It does not compute, and so you must 
ignore it.  You must create the intolerista infidel straw man and knock 
him down with your clever pre-conceived, pre-composed ripostes.  What 
passes for witty banter in the Church is nothing more than reading from 
the index cards.

I believe I'd like to read the rest of Alasdair MacIntyre's book.  It 
sounds most interesting.  Thanks for posting this.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

On Jun 29, 2006, at 8:19 PM, Michael wrote:

>
> Dear Princess of the Kirk,
>  
> You Write:
> Thanks for the heads-up, Pooh. God forbid that excellence in the 
> visual arts and classical music and other performing arts should ever 
> come to Moscow, eh Mike? [shudders] We wouldn't want to displace the 
> tattoo parlors and other manifestations of the indigenous high Palouse 
> culture now would we . . .
>  
>  
> Me:
> Thank you once again for the kind, public thoughts.  However, I’m 
> curious as to why your accusations continue even when they are always 
> shown to be fallacious.  I’m also curious as to why you respond to my 
> web site here on V 2020 after I have already invited you twice to put 
> up your own posts up in response on my web site.  Why would this kind 
> of invitation be refused?  And why do you not give the readership of 
> V2020 at least the context of what you are responding to (or perhaps 
> just a link)?  I read something this afternoon that suggests some 
> answers to these questions:
>  
> “Conflict arises, of course, not only within, but between traditions 
> and such a conflict tests the resources of each contending tradition.  
> It is yet another mark of a degenerate tradition that it has contrived 
> a set of epistemological defenses which enable it to avoid being put 
> in question or at least to avoid recognizing that it is being put in 
> question by rival traditions. This is, for example, part of the 
> degeneracy of modern astrology, of some types of psychiatric thought, 
> and of liberal Protestantism…”  --Alasdair MacIntyre “Epistemological 
> Crises, Narrative, and Philosophy of Science” Monist, October 1977.
>  
> Of course, I’m all for excellence in the arts coming to Moscow.  
> Somehow you were able to read my post while contriving a set of 
> epistemological defenses which enabled you to avoid being put in 
> question or at least recognizing that you were being put in question – 
> and you can put that in your copy of DKG and smoke it.  Its strange 
> too that someone called me up yesterday and two others emailed 
> yesterday and today for the purpose of telling me that they were glad 
> for the valuable public service I was giving.  Its providential events 
> like these that keep my ministry alive.
>  
> Yours,
> Michael Metzler
> The Wood, Inc.
> Serving the Palouse for Over 0.5 Years


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