Different Worldviews

[kevin_standlee]

I find myself wondering what Jonathan McAlmont and Danny O'Dare do to put bread on the table, and musing over whether whatever that is compared to my Day Jobbe is one of the reasons we are talking past each other to the point where I have taken Mary Kay Kare's advice about saying anything else over there. (In short, I am "Just [letting] people be wrong on the Internet…", as he asks.)

My Day Jobbe, which I should be doing right now and will be again in a few minutes, is a computer database programmer. I primarily write and maintain Microsoft Access-based small database application for quick deployment. (Warning: People who snark that Access isn't a "real database" will be considered discussion derailers and treated accordingly. I'm allowed to do that on my home turf, evil person that I am.) Being a programmer gives me a certain view of how I approach the world, process-wise. The character traits that led me into computer solutions engineering possibly are what drew me to an interest in parliamentary law, which is also a large rule-set that a knowledgeable person can "program" to accomplish certain tasks. I find satisfaction when the rules have been followed and everyone has had their say within those rules, even if I don't necessarily get my way. (Besides, if I lose, I often have a way to come back another day when the conditions have changed.) That doesn't necessarily mean I like the result, but if the decision was legal, I have no grounds for attacking on that basis.

(Example: the Mark Protection Committee's decisions in Australia in 2011 2010 were legal within the rules framework, even though their substance infuriated me. I therefore worked within that same framework to overturn the decision legally. I never claimed the decision was illegitimate, only ill-advised, and I'd have a very difficult time having a meaningful discussion with someone who doesn't see the difference.)

Not everyone thinks rules are worthwhile. That doesn't make them inherently evil (c.f. the Dungeons & Dragons "chaotic good" alignment; I'm probably lawful good on that scale, recognizing that paladins and their ilk can be a right pain to be around), but it often makes it nearly impossible for me to have a useful debate with them, on account of we differ so badly on basic assumptions. It's as though I brought a golf club and they have a tennis racquet, and we're standing in the middle of cricket pitch trying to play the game. (Of course, being adverse to rules, they probably aren't interested in any competitive sports anyway, but that's another story.)

Comments

[petrea-mitchell.livejournal.com]

Please not the "computer people are too logical to deal with normal human beings" argument! That leads inevitably to the autism supremacists' stance that having normal social abilities should be a disqualification from working with computers because only the purely logical can do it right, which is basically the old argument that women are "too emotional" for math and science reskinned. As a computer person whose particular professional interest requires undestanding how human beings work in order to get anywhere, I assure you that being good at computers does not necessarily make you too logical for everyday discourse.

There's a great parallel to the thread you're talking about, though-- you've expressed a thought you came up with yourself that seemes reasonable to you, and suddenly you discover that it's been expressed before and in worse terms, and someone who's seen that argument over and over is reacting to more than just the piece you have.

(Yes, BTW, there really are autism supremacists. Just to be clear, I'm not accusing you of being one of them, nor do I expect to ever have grounds to.)

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks for not accusing me of beliefs of which I do not have.

I know it's not a new idea. I was just trying to find some logical way of explaining why there was so much what I considered cognitive dissonance over there. But then again, as I said elsewhere, some people just want to be victims: it absolves them of any responsibility.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

A further thought: I think it's possible that within SF fandom, I'm not "abnormal" enough in some respects.