The Barstool Experiment

[LMNO]

Ok, I can see what you're saying.

I guess I was just coming from the "violence as object lesson" POV.

[Kusa]

Yeah, but so is being ugly.
So is calling the name of Satan in a (bar)church
Even hitting people with barstools encourage people to smack you with barstools.

But seriously, the pretentious bastards seemed to be the only "neophiles" in the story.
Say whatever about sticking to your own BS, but they just couldnt have been BORN with the ideas they were discussing, and whatever if their beliefs are irrelevent, cause they wery well might be, the BarStool man totally stuck to his BS and BS'd the S out of those poor guys.

[LMNO]

Ever hear of a "parable"?



You're dangerously close to eating the menu.

[Kusa]

Maybe i am, i guess i wouldn't know myself if i did. pun intended.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Ever hear of a "parable"?



You're dangerously close to eating the menu.

Is it a parable, or hyperbolic illustration? Inquiring English Teachers want to know....

[Chairman Risus]

Maybe i am, i guess i wouldn't know myself if i did. pun intended.

I don't get it.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Maybe i am, i guess i wouldn't know myself if i did. pun intended.

I don't get it.

Pssst, Keeper:

(Know myself - as in "I don't know" and "I know who I am")

[Cain]

We bring enlightenment regardless or not if you decided to seek it out.  Its kind of like the Bush doctrine, only with somewhat smaller civilian death tolls.

[fast speed]

do these two pretentious assholes really see themselves as being enlightened?

[LMNO]

You mean Cain and Rat?  Probably.

Heh.  I keed, I keed.



Anyway, for an honest answer, and because I have time:


Kusa:  I can see your point about how it seems that the two thinkers at the bar might be the only two neophiles in the bar, but I think what the parable/hyperbolic illustration* is getting at is the following:

What's the point of opening yourself up to flights of intellectual whimsey if it ends up with you drawing firm conclusions about a world that doesn't match the one you're actually living in?

If a person spends their lives living in a rich fantasy life that doesn't have at least some ties to consensus, experiential reality, then it is almost certain that one day, the barstool will fall.

So, who does this apply to?  Almost everyone.  Priests, witches, politicians, educators, philosophers, junkies, artists, drunks, republicans, dictators, junkies, democrats, "soft" scientists, libertarians, "hard" scientists, marxists...  You get the picture. 

It's not about how far outside the box you can think, it's about how your thinking actually affects the solid world in which you live.



Srsly.


























*Rat:  It's both.

[Cain]

Sense of humour malfunction ITT

[LMNO]

REBOOT!  REBOOT!

[AFK]

when one gets too wrapped up in their voyage, they tend to go off course and get lost. 

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

So, who does this apply to?  Almost everyone.  Priests, witches, politicians, educators, philosophers, junkies, artists, drunks, republicans, dictators, junkies, democrats, "soft" scientists, libertarians, "hard" scientists, marxists...  You get the picture. 

It's not about how far outside the box you can think, it's about how your thinking actually affects the solid world in which you live.

Yep, I tend to see it as a violent rendition of responding to the Cosmic Schmuck Principle. Everyone is occasionally a Cosmic Schmuck and sometimes a metaphysical barstool is just what is needed to remind the Cosmic Schmuck that they indeed acting like a Cosmic Schmuck.

*Rat:  It's both.

LOL and a metaphysical metaphor to boot. 

[Kusa]

HAHA, made you rant!

What's the point of opening yourself up to flights of intellectual whimsey if it ends up with you drawing firm conclusions about a world that doesn't match the one you're actually living in?

There were no firm conclusions in the story as i understood it. besides, i believe that all firm conclusions about any world or about anything does not match reality at all, and if it does it is purely by accident. All the things we see, touch or sense in any way might just our body making a suggestion to our brains that reacts in the manner it has been conditioned to react.

Or: fuckitidontknow   <-- The only honest words i've ever spoke. beat me with a chair and i suppose it hurts...