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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Re: "The Invisible Partners" (digression)
Message-ID: <1448@peora.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 22:24:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.1448
Posted: Wed Aug  7 22:24:27 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 05:10:21 EDT
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> I think part of the problem here is that I, and probably most people, grow
> on sort of a sawtooth graph...

I think this is one of the fundamental truths about the human learning
process.  However, I would say it differently; I think that people learn
by successive approximations.

You see this in many things: people adopt some new, fairly extreme
personal philosophy; they find it has some shortcomings, so they go to
the other extreme and try that; eventually they more and more tend to balance
out.  You can see this in politics, also:  thus, a few years ago, America
was all in support of a kind, "down-home" farmer for President; but they
decided that didn't work, so they decided to support a firm, no-nonsense
figure from the other political party... I am not sure politics necessarily
refines itself in the long run, though.  I tend to suspect that people do,
although new generations, who do not have the benefit of seeing the opposite
side of these back-and-forth swings, tend to perpetuate the cyclic changes
by their enthusiasm for the currently popular view of things.  I suspect
the individuals in a society tend, over time, to achieve a general sort
of moderation, though, if they continue to grow and evolve (rather than
stopping at some point -- though I think that tends to be common, too).
-- 
Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
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