Re: Passion and rationality
Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Thu, 4 Apr 1996 10:20:45 -0500
Why is it that anger frightens people? A cool, calculated attack is
very frightening. Anger, like grief, like many more complex
affective stances, means in a way that words alone do not, it's
a language of its own, deserves our hearing. It's out of someone's truth,
someone's lived history, a resource for ideological becoming IF answered
out of one's own truth - that is, with a more-than-words response that
is not defensive and not an attack - in dialog. I agree with
Francoise that this might mean being "responsive at the risk no doubt of
some loss of talk and conversation." But we have to allow for the language
of passions, if we want to enjoy civility without represession - the
insistence of some one truth over others. I agree with Robin - we have
to reconceive rationality.
This is not to say that anger is always truthful -- we are very good
at using whatever resources are available to us to do new things and
often opposite things - to lie, trick, manipulate. To fend off truths.
But it's usually possible to tell the difference.
- Judy
Judy Diamondstone
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University
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