Subject: Re: type safety in LISP
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 09 Dec 2002 16:04:28 +0000
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3248438668279148@naggum.no>

* Pascal Costanza
| Obviously, my mistake was to believe that you are capable of doing
| so, or at least correct your mistakes when they are pointed out.

  Several other people here have now commented on your mistake, but I
  see nothing from you that could give me an indication of capability
  to correct mistakes, nor of actually understanding what you are
  asked to do, but you project this paucity of abilities onto others.
  Why do you so arrogantly assume that other people are just as
  deficient as yourself?  Why do you treat other people as if they are
  what you fear most that you might be yourself?

  You hurl a number of really insane accusations at me about things
  you have no possible /means/ to know, further supporting an argument
  of mine that you do not understand that acquiring knowledge is work
  and requries directed, conscious effort.  When you make such claims,
  I /know/ that you lack some /very/ fundamental argumentative and
  intellectual skills.  I look at you and see a person who does not,
  even when it would save him, /think/ and /reflect/ and get a grip on
  himself.  It is truly disturbing to watch.  And over such an ickle
  thing as terminology and imaginary contradictions.  Lamentable!

  One of the skills you lack is to limit your statements to what you
  /can/ know, and, in the words of Aristotle, to say about that which
  is that it is and about that which is not that it is not; he talked
  about /honesty/ and /intgrity/.  Since this discussion is concerned
  with whether what you think is correct is indeed so, I look for
  clues in what other things you write that you obviously appear to
  think is correct, but you know what?  I find that you make a number
  of utterly /unfounded/ claims, wild conjectures based on that
  hateful thing in emotionally disturbed people that demonizes their
  opponent so they do not have to treat them like human beings.  You
  /make up/ things to accuse me of.  This does not happen to people
  who retain their composure and are in control of themselves.  It is
  a very strong symptom of complete mental breakdown.  Why do you
  share this with the world.  And when all that has been required of
  you is to tell me exactly, unequivocally, what would make you happy.
  You continue to tell the whole world how unhappy you are, but you do
  not make a single attempt to rectify the situation.  Pathological!

  This whole unwillingness to curtail your fantasizing about me goes
  directly to your credibility and your /ability/ to distinguish what
  you believe from what is out there in reality.  I have suspected
  that to you, there /is/ no such distinction, that you literally live
  in your own world where everything you say makes sense, but look at
  yourself, man!  You make sweeping claims about other people in a way
  that strictly speaking is /insane/ -- what you say /cannot possibly/
  all be true at the same time.  That tether between your mind and
  reality has overextended itself.

| It doesn't matter what concrete terminology I would personally
| prefer, because we are not talking about personal opinions or
| tastes, etc.  Just use the correct and accepted terminology.

  Again, it appears that you are not even aware that in order to use
  "correct and accepted terminology" you need to know precisely what
  you are talking /about/.  There is no point in knowing what the
  "correct and accepted terminology" is unless you also know what it
  means.  The point of asking /you/ what would make /you/ happy and
  quit complaining and hurling accusations at people (is this your
  idea of being nice and friendly, by the way?) is to know whether
  /you/ have any idea whatsoever about what other people are talking
  about?  But clearly, you do not.  You assume that some disembodied
  "correct and accepted terminology" is sufficient, but do you know to
  what it applies?  I fear you do not even ask yourself that question.

| You can read, can't you?

  I marvel at your idiocy, Pascal, but more than that, I am deeply
  worried about your sanity.  Because, you see, after this moronic
  rhetorical question, which suggests that if you were any slower, you
  would be thinking backwards, mere moments later, you write this:

| Oh, I am sorry, I have forgotten that you are obviously incapable
| of reading.

  Pascal, I have long suspected you to be a deficient, malfunctioning
  human being, but when you go and say such things, I know that the
  fragile connection between reality and whatever is inside that poor
  excuse for a cranium of yours is no more.  /Psychosis/ has set in,
  wherein you actually believe what is not so to be the truth, and
  sadly but typical of psychotics, you insist with a strenght rivaling
  religious fanatics that only what you think is right, even though it
  is frequently self-contradictory and betray a mind that is no longer
  accepting any input from the external world.

  Rest assured that I can read, Pascal, also between the lines.  When
  I look at your "output", I feel the remnants of pity that a flood of
  disgust cannot quite wash away.  You betray your innermost fears to
  me in ways at which your future self will recoil in horror, and you
  display your want of coping strategies in ways that so far removed
  from an adult discussion that somebody, /anybody/ with compassion
  for you, would have yanked you out of that mental state you are in,
  /made/ you snap out of it since you cannot do that on your own.

  This was about /programming languages/, Pascal!  You act as if your
  entire psychological makeup is under attack, that your identity as a
  person is in danger, that you will cease to /exist/ if you have to
  admit that (1) your contradiction was a figment of your imagination
  and (2) your personal problem with "correct" terminology tells the
  whole world that you /malfunction/ when an error occurs.  Smart and
  healthy people exhibit a graceful degradation of performance under
  pressure as well as self-awareness of same, but you lose /all/ your
  marbles at once.

  Do you think you could try to get back to what your objections were?
  Do you think you could at least /try/ to keep somewhat on track?  I
  do not want to hear any more of your insane ranting and raving about
  whether I can read or what you have "forgotten" of what you have
  clearly invented entirely on your own.  I want you to be /nice/ to
  me, like you have argued that people should be towards one another,
  and apologize for all the insane accusations you have hurled my way,
  and /demonstrate/ the superiority of your kinder, gentler way.  Use
  that warm language of yours, show cognizance and care for how I feel
  and display your excellent command of the way you suggest that I and
  others deal with people on this newsgroup.  As you are hurt and
  frustrated, there is no better time than now to /perform/ according
  to your own standards.  Show us the Pascal Costanza that you want us
  to remember, your flair for compassionate communication.  Show us
  the grandeur of a person who can, in the face of negative emotions
  and suspicions that he is a staggering fool, put his money where his
  mouth is.  Show us the Pascal Costanza that takes it upon himself to
  lambast those who unfairly criticizes yet is far and away above that
  reprehensible act himself.  Show us Pascal Costanza as he wants to
  be seen!  I await your performance with baited breath.  Imagine, not
  a harsh word, not one accusation, not a single rabid rant.

  We who are about to read, salute you!

  By the way, I do have a really heartfelt suggestion to you: Do try
  to be nice to people.  Not because I think you should primarily be
  nice, but because I think you should avoid trying to insult people
  at all cost: You absolutely stink at it, and I loathe incompetence.

-- 
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway

Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.