Some years ago, a scientist of my acquaintance was speaking on science, and spoke of "the austerity of science" (the rules by which science plays). He did not go into an intellectual explanation of these rules, but I had an intuitive sense of his meaning.
That fine gentleman has long since left this mortal coil, and not so long ago I had come across the web page of a rational scientist, who gave a very clear explanation of this austerity, along with a caution that the field of psychology doesn't play strictly by those same rules.
I composed the "thank you" note below in a certain style, as I seem to be better at expressing my feelings in a humorous manner than in an intellectual & artistic one.
Here it is:
Quote:
Aspergers Syndrome and the Reality of Psychology
Dear Paul, I'm a 63 year old Electrical Engineering Tech, retired on SSDI (due to increased memory lapse), who has recently had the interesting and liberating experience of discovering he is not a "stranger in a strange land", but a member of the "long lost tribe of Aspie", i.e., my particular flavor of the human variety is seen as "odd" by the shaman's of a much larger neighboring tribe called "Enties", who like to characterize us as having what they call "Aspergers Syndrome" (when they are feeling somewhat friendly) or "Aspergers Disorder" (when they are not).
Now, this wouldn't cause so much trouble if it wasn't for the fact that some of their shamans, which call themselves "Psychologists", are under a delusion that they are "scientists" and have managed to convince most of their tribe of this delusion. However, thanks to the intelligence that you have passed on to us about them, we are able to properly classify them as "artists".
Now, some of their artists seem to be fine artists, but some seem only to be con artists. It's this last group that really worry us; you see, many of this group seem not only irrational, but are not infrequently openly hostile towards members of our tribe.
We find their behavior puzzling; after all, we've always been friendly to their tribe, despite their peculiarly superstitious nature. You see, unlike ourselves, their tribe doesn't seem to have a natural ability to think outside the box, so we had to teach them how to do so. Unfortunately, as you have observed, they have forgotten the purpose of their educational institutions, which we helped them to create.
We can only conclude that perhaps these particular shamans have an irrational fear that we will infect their people, and that our ways will undermine their religion.
Our greatest fear, of course, is that the apparently growing ignorance of their tribe is putting it in danger of extinction; this would, of course be the worst possible disaster, as our tribe is very small and theirs is very large, and we need them for survival as much as they need us.
Now, if only we could get them to understand this!
Thanks for the heads up
Johnpipe
_________________
He who sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, hates none -- Isha Upanishad
Bom Shankar Bholenath! I do not "have a syndrome", nor do I "have a disorder," I am a "Natural Born Scholar!"
19 Dec 2007, 3:59 pm
