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> ... it impossible to have a rational discussion with irrational people ... Not necessarily. Many are able to compartmentalize irrational beliefs into their

> ... it impossible to have a rational discussion with irrational people ... Not necessarily. Many are able to compartmentalize irrational beliefs into their everyday lives. You can have folks that appear perfectly rational in almost all things and live full professional lives. Yet when they discuss their tar-baby, "the crazy" comes out. I would lump fundamentalist religious people into this category. I think if one is able to introspect hard enough, it is possible for _everyone_ to realize that they're holding irrational beliefs at some level. Whether or not this is harmful depends on the norms of the culture, and to what extent one is willing to act on their beliefs or impose them on others.

logfromblammo 10y ago
I believe in crazy stuff--like batshit crazy stuff. I can still have a rational discussion, because I severed that part of my personality and crammed it into a tiny, fortified metal box inside my brain. I have found that it is still useful for writing fiction. That is, for writing things that the remainder of myself, and everyone else in the real world around me, can recognize and know to be untrue. Because there is no way that raving lunatic in there could possibly know whether any of the things it shouts out could be true. Could it? It shouldn't really matter that it has such an eye for detail and a knack for explaining things that seem otherwise unexplainable in a rational world. I heartily encourage you to not make any attempt to pry that box open. Don't touch the lock. Mind the warning signs. The crazy is inside the box. The rational is outside it. I should probably stop talking to my crazy so much, but it's so much more entertaining than television. It really is an infinite source of amusement. I mean, the story about Devil's Tower being a fossilized tree stump left over from a previous epoch is just amateur stuff in comparison.

logfromblammo 10y ago

I believe in crazy stuff--like batshit crazy stuff. I can still have a rational discussion, because I severed that part of my personality and crammed it into a tiny, fortified metal box inside my brain. I have found that it is still useful for writing fiction. That is, for writing things that the remainder of myself, and everyone else in the real world around me, can recognize and know to be untrue. Because there is no way that raving lunatic in there could possibly know whether any of the things it shouts out could be true. Could it? It shouldn't really matter that it has such an eye for detail and a knack for explaining things that seem otherwise unexplainable in a rational world. I heartily encourage you to not make any attempt to pry that box open. Don't touch the lock. Mind the warning signs. The crazy is inside the box. The rational is outside it. I should probably stop talking to my crazy so much, but it's so much more entertaining than television. It really is an infinite source of amusement. I mean, the story about Devil's Tower being a fossilized tree stump left over from a previous epoch is just amateur stuff in comparison.