Passion and rationality
Francoise Herrmann (fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org)
Wed, 3 Apr 1996 12:06:55 -0800 (PST)
Hi everyone, I wanted to think further about the issues that Angel and
Jay raised on line. I think that I have felt like Angel a profound
outrage at the sanitized rationality of certain descriptions and I think
that I have also felt almost frightened by the passions of some activists.
I also think that perhaps what makes both of these forms of expression
the same is that they are perceived as completely innapropriate to
some reference point. The mismatch, or the rupture that arises in those
contexts is just not "funny" (a la Bergson) because it is perhaps
people's lives that are being either sanitized or empassioned. In both
cases there is fear. In the sanitized version the emotions, the empathy
perhaps that one would like to hear are muffled, split off to protect
oneself. In the empassioned version, it is anger that drives the words
that sound so misdirected and innapropriate. I don't know that there is
any way out except civil talk, but in my view that also means being
dead earnest. Perhaps just responsive at the risk no doubt of some
loss of talk and conversation. Musings, just musings....
Francoise
Francoise Herrmann
fherrmann who-is-at igc.org