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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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