I knew Robert A. Heinlein. I knew him well enough to be trusted with his phone number. I had dinner at his house. He treated me as a colleague. So I like to think I understood a little bit of his thinking. He wasnt a curmudgeon. He was a joyous human being. But ... He respected his privacy. He also respected that he did research -- a lot of it. He did more research on a subject than most people. Now, yes, sometimes he missed the mark, sometimes he got it wrong -- but it wasnt from lack of research, ti wasnt from lack of education. So he didnt have a lot of patience for those who spoke from ignorance -- he didnt have a lot of patience for uninformed opinions, for mouth noises without thought behind them. If there is one thing I have inherited from Robert A. Heinlein it is that same impatience with ignorance and stupidity. No, Im not perfect. Yes, I get some things wrong from time to time -- more often than I care to admit. But it isnt from lack of willingness to learn. So yes, like Robert, I have no tolerance for stupidity or ignorance. And if I delete a remark or defriend a person ... no, its not because Im running an echo chamber here, its not because I dont tolerate disagreement. Its because I dont tolerate rudeness. And I will never tolerate the assumption that ignorance is equal to education. It isnt -- not even for especially large amounts of ignorance. And ... disagreement does not justify disagreeable. Heres the thing. When people post stuff -- theyre inviting others to understand. Thats all. Theyre not inviting an argument. Youre not obligated to read anything. Youre even less obligated to agree with it. And even less are you obligated to disagree with it. If I want disagreement, I can pay five pounds to John Cleese for an argument. ltll be funnier too. This is why Heinlein put up a fence around the house -- if it was electrified, I dont know, I never touched it, let alone tried to climb it. Robert didnt mind fans -- he just didnt have much patience for stupid people. By the way, Harlan Ellison is the same. And Im getting there too.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 05:33:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015