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From: amc@whuts.UUCP (Andy Cohill)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Emotions and choice
Message-ID: <223@whuts.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 07:23:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuts.223
Posted: Fri Aug  9 07:23:33 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 01:40:55 EDT
References: <5557@cbscc.UUCP>  <591@unc.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 35

***
***
I am growing weary of this semantic nonsense about choosing our
emotions, and being/not being responsible for others.
I understand the concept, and its attractiveness, very well. Ayn
Rand started writing about it way back in the Dark Ages. Not only
that, she articulated it better than most of the
"self-actualization" wahoos that are making mincemeat out of poor
old Abe Maslow's ideas.

When I was seventeen, I stumbed across Ayn Rand, and for the next
two or three years I went through all of her fiction, and much of
her non-fiction. I read "Atlas Shrugged" three times. Anyway, it
took me years to undo the damage. You can't just take these theories
and embrace them whole, throwing out everything you have learned
before. Aside from making you a bore to all the people that you try
to convert--you might wish to read Eric Hoffer for a dose of reality
about "true believers"--it turns you into a hard, cold person as you
relentlessly apply your "logic" to essentially non-logical
situations.

Let's face it; if you are on the net, the chances are good that you
love the gleaming logic of computers, that you love the splendid
isolation of writing code, that you love controlling the million
billion silicon electrons in the LSI interiors of our machines.
 
Don't let it into your relationships with other human beings!!!!!
It just don't work.

The simple things work best; respect, love, and laughter, without
any expectations.

Best regards,
Andy Cohill
{ihnp4|allegra}houxm!whuxl!whuts!amc