Fear and Ignorance Are Not Negotiable
Usually when someone in power tells you that something is "not negotiable" they usually have in mind some very narrowly defined issue that typically is a unique case.
It's hard to generalize from infrequent rare cases.
It happened again a few days ago. Someone told me something was "not negotiable." But this time it was a little different. Because the item in question was a 'Boojum' — an imaginary notion that had no correspondence to anything real. I had made up an expression that not only had no definition, any attempt to come up with a definition resulted in the discovery that no such thing could possibly exist (except in a runaway imagination).
And that, at long last, allowed me to tumble to a generalization of what other people consider "non-negotiable."
Turns out it's fairly simple.
Fear and Ignorance are not negotiable.
End of story.
And so it goes.
It's hard to generalize from infrequent rare cases.
It happened again a few days ago. Someone told me something was "not negotiable." But this time it was a little different. Because the item in question was a 'Boojum' — an imaginary notion that had no correspondence to anything real. I had made up an expression that not only had no definition, any attempt to come up with a definition resulted in the discovery that no such thing could possibly exist (except in a runaway imagination).
And that, at long last, allowed me to tumble to a generalization of what other people consider "non-negotiable."
Turns out it's fairly simple.
Fear and Ignorance are not negotiable.
End of story.
And so it goes.
posted by Moulton | 8:33 AM
2 Comments:
Without knowing the context for the fear and ignorance I cannot comment on your experience. I can however, comment on my own. In nursing, we are trained to help people overcome fear and ignorance. Not every patient is receptive to change, but with the right approach many can be reached. It is our mission to treat the whole patient (mind and body). Fear and ingnorance can prevent a person from living a productive life, which directly affects the body.
Boojum I had to look up on wikipedia. It reminded me of a sniglet from You Can't Do That On Television.
Good to learn something new; other than what is required for school.
Oh, the context was rather banal. It was on forum where a small number of participants got into Chicken Little Mode.
Actually, I think they were faking it, just to see what the forum host would do.
The forum host panicked and caved, saying the issues they raised were not negotiable.
A few days later, he came to his senses and reversed himself, but the insight remains.
Overcoming fear and ignorance is often an insurmountable opportunity.
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