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RE: Fw: Stop the madness



Franz Schoenhofer wrote:



<<You cannot "convert" people to your point of view, by telling them more or

less, that they are fools, and that there lives "have so little purpose that

they were looking for a cause - a

reason to exist." and "there are other reasons - personal relationships,

money, etc." This is offending and of the level, what we call in Austria

literarily translated "gossip at the pub".>>





I'm not trying to convert anyone to anything on this list server. If anyone

reading the opinion I expressed is offended, they're welcome to express the

reason for their beliefs. However, I'm fairly astute at recognizing

sincere-sounding rationalizations. If after 30 years in this field I

actually discover what appears to be a valid reason, I'll ask for more

information. At some point, one of three things will emerge: their true

motive(s), their desire to remain ignorant and emotional, or their desire to

become better informed. There are actually a couple of others I won't

address. But the only one of the three I can do anything about is the last

one. And that individual is the least likely to be offended by what I said.



Anger (offense) is a secondary emotion--I could have chosen to be angry

about your comment regarding my command (or lack of it) of the English

language. I'll leave you to decide why I wasn't. Regardless, if people

really want to become better informed, rather than be offended, they can

choose to remove themselves from their comfort zones and do so. I'm never

offensive or belittling to someone who is trying to improve his or her

knowledge. I can be and am at times rude to people who don't want to learn

or whose primary motive is debate, which by definition is the antithesis of

learning ("A man persuaded against his will is of the same opinion still.").

And although I generally try to avoid conflict, I learned that avoiding it

at all cost probably will.





Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer





-----Original Message-----

From: Franz Schoenhofer [mailto:franz.schoenhofer@chello.at]

Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 2:29 PM

To: Jack_Earley@rl.gov; BLHamrick@aol.com; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: Re: Fw: Stop the madness







Private:

Franz Schoenhofer

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Phone: -43 699 11681319

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at



Office:

MR Dr. Franz Schoenhofer

Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

Dep. I/8U, Radiation Protection

Radetzkystr. 2

A-1031 Vienna, AUSTRIA

phone: +43-1-71100-4458

fax: +43-1-7122331

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@bmu.gv.at







-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Jack_Earley@RL.gov <Jack_Earley@RL.gov>

An: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at <franz.schoenhofer@chello.at>;

Jack_Earley@rl.gov <Jack_Earley@rl.gov>; BLHamrick@aol.com

<BLHamrick@aol.com>; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

<radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Montag, 04. Februar 2002 23:45

Betreff: RE: Fw: Stop the madness





You're right--I did delete an extra word as I was editing my own work. It

should read that eventually . . . they <get> it out of their systems. And if

you or anyone else wants to hold me up as a poor example of pronuclear

environmentalism, I have no problem with that. Except to do that, they have

to actually use some part of what I write, and risk losing some of their own

readers to logic instead of emotion.



-----------------------------------------------------------------

I had no problem to understand your message. I sincerely doubt, that any

antinuclear activist dragging forward your missing word would waste time to

read, what you else have written - nor would a journalist. So your writing

would not reach anybody who could be lost to logic.

----------------------------------------------------------------







BTW, I added instead of multiplied last week in the last equation I inserted

into a spreadsheet I developed to calculate the dose from a traversing

source, and didn't realize it until after I shut off the computer. Lucky

thing I remembered to correct it this morning. Just thought you'd like to

know I'm not perfect in that either.

-----------------------

Nobody is perfect and I sure am not an exception.

-------------------------------------------------------------





Come to think of it, I'm not perfect in

much of anything. But I surely do admire those of you who can communicate in

multiple languages, especially in a technical field. It must give you a

tremendous sense of self-satisfaction.

-------------------------------------------------



No, it does not. Being a scientist is it absolutely essential to speak

English fluently nowadays - in earlier times German was the language of

Chemistry and Physics. Many people in Europe speak a second language more or

less fluently. I learnt Swedish, when I used to work as a student in Swedish

paper and cellulose factories to earn my living for the rest of the year. I

can understand and especially read some other languages, but this is not for

self-satisfaction, but convenient when visiting in countries, where these

languages are spoken or when reading the few scientific papers written in

these languages. We Europeans really regard the attitude of US Americans,

not to learn foreign languages as very negative.



But that was a detour from my summary: You cannot "convert" people to your

point of view, by telling them more or less, that they are fools, and that

there lives "have so little purpose that they were looking for a cause - a

reason to exist." and "there are other reasons - personal relationships,

money, etc." This is offending and of the level, what we call in Austria

literarily translated "gossip at the pub".



Best wishes,



Franz







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