blue trane's Journal: Political dream

2012-12-23

I was coming out of some large arena where there had been a political gathering, or other large gathering of people. I was with Jim and Dan. We were energized, running through a parking lot. It was raining.

I saw an old Conservative man with large wire-frame glasses. It looked like George Bush Sr. (Herbert Walker Bush). He was muttering something, standing near a big puddle, figuring out a path through it that would get him the least wet. I yelled at him as we passed, something like: "Why do you want to keep all the money locked up, hoarded away? Give it to us, we'll spend your money! We'll spend it for you, if you're not going to! It'll be good for all of us..." Something like that. I was making eye contact with him and could see that I held his attention; that he was entertained by me, and was not dismissing what I was saying outright. He seemed to be actually considering my arguments!

Jim, Dan and I continued running, leaving the old people (including the one I'd been talking to) far behind. Now we were in a mall, still running.

I said something like "Did you see that? I was getting to him!"

Dan said, very negatively, "He was getting angry, too."

I had been feeling bouyant, energetic, exhilerated. Now I felt that Dan was trying to crush me. It was plain to me that I had made a good impression on the old conservative; I had advanced an argument and he had seriously considered it. But Dan wasn't going to see it my way. He saw it rather as me offending some old powerful rich guy.

Dan was so sure about his interpretation. I realized (perhaps just after waking up) how large was the barrier I was trying to overcome: there was such a strong psychological prejudice against me, it interprets anything I do negatively. In the eyes of those who know me (Jim, Dan), everything I do is discounted, dismissed as ineffectual. I had been making inroads in challenging the political philosophy of the Old Conservative; but in Dan's eyes I had merely offended him.

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Day residue: It's been raining. In Coursera's "Think Again: How to reason and argue" class, I posted a description of how to do syllogisms with logicagent, but it was ignored. Many were asking for help on syllogisms and I think my program can provide some insight into how to determine the validity of hypothetical syllogisms; but they responded positively only to those linking to other textbooks and verbal explanations on the web, not to interactive programs that attempt to automate the syllogism...

When I woke up, I was hot. I had to uncover myself and get up, my body felt so warm.