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"Michael Daly" typed:
I've got to hand it to you, willy boy - there are only a handful of idiots that have made it onto the r.b.p ****list and you did it in record time. Mike Interesting, isn't it, Michael, the way Willie What has this elaborate simile system comparing "wealthy" instructors (and those non-instructors who believe in learning from the hard-earned experience of others) to followers of a "religion", much the way another polluter of r.b.p has this elaborate mental construct about instructors "murdering schoolchildren" for personnal gain. There seems to be a common paranoid thread running through the messages of both of these very dangerous (to the uninitiated, who might follow their advice) men. The difference, in my eyes, is that Watt has a reasonable, commonsense theory WITHIN THE CONTEXT of the calmwater boating he does. To float around a pond or flat stream fishing or birdwatching does not require any expertise as a paddler, hence it is not really a very good value to pay for instruction or for expensive special-purpose boats for that activity, and you can, indeed, teach yerself all the skills you need to engage in the activity relatively safely. Watt's problem, though, was that he was blinded by his own context, and did not think about the consequences of his assertions in other contexts: offshore kayaking and whitewater boating, which are both hazardous endeavors. When practitioners of those more dangerous sports/hobbies took Watt to task for what was dangerous advice in THOSE contexts, he became defensive and dogmatic, and now he's gone over the top. Well, come to think of it, the other guy has a reasonable device, too, if HE could just learn to discuss it in anything but extreme and absolutist terms. Looks like a very similar pathology in both cases: a kernel of common sense within certain contexts, twisted all out of proportion by an attempt to apply it universally, and then carried into extreme rants by an inability to discuss the matter rationally. -Richard, His Kanubic Travesty -- ================================================== ==================== Richard Hopley, Winston-Salem, NC, USA rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net 1-301-775-0471 Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll. rhopley[at]wfubmc[dot]edu 1-336-713-5077 OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters. ================================================== ==================== |
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