From: Zbadba@yabbs
To: arachnoi@yabbs
Subject: re: Insult the Dolts!
Date: Fri Jun 17 02:14:49 1994

"{166 I.Q.? All that horsepower and no transmission."

I doubt you know me well enough to judge. IQ's merely a measure of 
potential, as you correctly infer, regardless.

"Go back and read the posts on "The poor will be the first to
starve". We have beat this one to death already."

Well, forgive me, I didn't realize that topics of philosophy lived and 
died at your whim on this bbs. To think of the responsibility in wielding 
such power. I'm glad that's your job, not mine.

"You are right! I have made my way as I go. All the way from the
bottom to the top."

Eh? Kindly elucidate; I was unable to parse the above contradiction. You 
first agree that your life has never been "rough" then tell me that you've 
built your life all by your lonesome?

Well, I'll assume for the moment that you think you have "made the journey 
from the proverbial bottom to the proverbial top" all by yourself.

Got news for ya, bud. Noone does. You are where you are today because of 
the aggregate efforts of those around you, in addition to your own. Ever 
heard the quote "No man is an island"? Well, it's true. Anyone trying
to project the image that they have "made it on their own" is at best 
misguided, and at worst, a fraud and a charlatan.

"U.S. Appalachians and S.W. Indian reservations, CA, MX, Japan,
Nigeria, Caribbean, Middle East. Been around enough to know that
your life is what u make out of it, and not what some1 gives to u."

See above. Now read this:
No one can "give you" a "life." And life is, indeed, "what u make out of 
it." It's a shame you have such a limited perspective on life. That the 
be-all and end-all goal is some nebulous concept of "success." I find you 
quite pitiable in that respect. I've traveled to many of the places you 
mentioned, and many others you didn't. Pray, did you learn anything? Or 
were you too focused on how "inferior" the lives of the people
you encountered were? Where in these places did you go? (Where in the 
Middle East? What indian reservation? What part of mexico? What section of 
the appalachians?) I am curious. I have many questions- one for every 
answer You've got, plus at least one more.