Theos-Talk Archives (November 1999 Message tl00355)

In a message dated 11/29/99 6:39:48 AM Central Standard Time, jrc@texas.net
writes:

>  I *am*, BTW, impressed with the degrees.

Actually, I'm not.  They are a measure of training and a ticket into
a profession.  To succeed beyond that takes much more than the
successful completion of a program.  As a former Vice President of
Overseas Operations of BA used to tell me when I lived in San
Francisco, "we hire people for their degrees, we retain and
promote them for their intelligence and team-spirit."  In my
phase of life, they are only occasionally useful upon occasions
when confronted by either those making pretensions to something
they are not (and thus detectable by those who are) or those
"know-it-alls" who end up being permanent students incapable
of completing a program of study or do finally finish and become
experts in having an opinion (usually negative) about everything.
Ever see the Woody Allen film where he and Diane Keaton are
in a theatre line while some loud mouth is going on as an
expert about the thought of McCluhen (SP?).  So Woody
interjects that he doesn't know what he is talking about?
To trump the encounter, Woody brings in McCluhen (SP?) himself
who tells the guy he is idiot.  That is sole purpose of degrees
in later life.  Trumps to end hopeless conversation.

>  Well, not really the degrees,
>  but with the obvious breadth of knowledge you've amassed over your
>  lifetime, and the very different perspective you add to the list.

Thanks.

>  I
>  think you're right to let this child stamp his feet ... people have
>  taken a good amount of time to answer his questions, and all he ever
>  does is come back demanding that people either meet his terms, deliver
>  him "falsifiable" evidence he's capable of understanding within the
>  context of a perspective so pinched and narrow as to be incapable of
>  grasping the "truth" he claims to seek, and refuses to even play with
>  the idea that *he* might have to change to make himself fit to *receive*
>  portions of that truth (one of the core concepts of Theosophy). Clearly
>  he had some bad experience early on, and is simply *using* people on
>  this list to work out his own issues. -JRC

When I first came to this country, such activity was called "soapboxing."
Back then, it was funny street preachers proclaiming the end is near on
a box or wearing placard down near Powell St. station outside San
Francisco Woolworths downtown at Market.  Now some seem to
be on www.  Anyway, thanks.  I usually don't like to tell another they
are hereby ignored.  So, confirmation is comforting.

Grigor
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