If you meet the Buddha in the road, block him.QUOTE(Floydsvoid @ Tue 16th September 2008, 12:25am)
I can't help but observe, Mr. Moulton, that as someone that studies large dynamic online communities, you do a piss-poor job of interacting with them. Or is that planned (IMG:
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In a sense it's "planned" but not by me. If I were living in a pre-scientific era, I might speak of "God's Plan" but such language is considered quaint by modern standards of public discourse.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson speaks of the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. Today we would speak of the "Natural Course of Events" (per Natural Law) rather than speak of "God's Plan". But it means the same thing.
The drama that is in play is an oft-recurring (and thus predictable) drama that arises when the dominant player is operating at Kohlberg Level 4 and the non-dominant player is seeking to operate at Kohlberg Level 5. This drama has many famous examples in history, some more familiar than others. The version that seems most apt in this go-round is the version which Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole portrayed in the encounter between Thomas à Becket and King Henry. Ever since the dawn of civilization, this same drama plays out many times in every generation. Eventually you will find yourself in this same dramatic passage, either in the role of King Henry (the character in power who operates at Kohlberg Level 4) or in the role of Beckett (the character out of power who operates at Kohlberg Level 5). It is all but inevitable that the character at Kohlberg Level 4 will move to annihilate the character at Kohlberg Level 5. How could it possibly be any other way?
If none of the above makes sense to you, then you are in the camp of Jimbo Wales, firmly entrenched at Kohlberg Level 4 of the game, and utterly oblivious of the existence or desirability of Kohlberg Level 5.