From: utzoo!decvax!wivax!linus!genradbo!mitccc!svw
Newsgroups: net.flame
Title: The Importance Of...
Article-I.D.: mitccc.322
Posted: Tue Feb 15 00:01:18 1983
Received: Thu Feb 17 06:35:29 1983

 	I'll tell you what bothers me.  A discussion of "The
Winds of War" in net.tv or somewhere concentrated for some time
on Ali McGraw's acting ability or lack therof. Then somebody
comes on and says something along the lines of "Oh come on, who
cares how she acts? The REAL important question is how the movie
portrayed the horrors of war, etc. etc."

 	Something about this attitude bothers me; that one person
can see only what he deems important in any issue and totally
refuse to talk about any other aspect of the issue.

 	Okay, maybe the war aspect is more important. But why put
down a discussion of acting ability?

 	I knew a girl once who was concerned with nothing else
but how much she hated capitalists, white people, and other
people who have traditionally held most of the power. When I told
her once that I was interested in the space program, she would
ask me: "How come there are no black astronauts?" (There are.)

 	There is a public forum here at MIT in the form of a
graffiti poster. A question will appear on it each week ("Are MIT
admittance programs reasonable?") and people will scribble their
thought on the subject. Once the question had to do with the tv
premiere of Battlestar Galactica; someone flamed on the poster
that such a question was distracting us away from important topics.

 	Of course it was! That was the point!

 	Does this attitude strike anyone else as rude, self-centered,
single-minded?
 					Royal Flash