Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers?
Um… “No.” Famously so. Alas.
Next?
Conformance.
Comments
3 responses to “Conformance.”
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re: Conformance.
incidentally, paul graham writes:
<<< Let’s start with a test: Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers?
If the answer is no, you might want to stop and think about that. If everything you believe is something you’re supposed to believe, could that possibly be a coincidence? Odds are it isn’t. Odds are you just think whatever you’re told.
The other alternative would be that you independently considered every question and came up with the exact same answers that are now considered acceptable. That seems unlikely, because you’d also have to make the same mistakes. Mapmakers deliberately put slight mistakes in their maps so they can tell when someone copies them. If another map has the same mistake, that’s very convincing evidence. >>>
…but he is not answering the question that he asked, there; the question he is answering is: “do your opinions conform to current social norms to a sufficient extent that you can speak without embarrassment on any topic?”
The question he *asked* is a different one: are you content to express your opinions in public irrespective of social norms?
Subtle difference.
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Graham’s URL
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re: Conformance.
Perhaps the issue here is one of degree. Remember that in some eras a public admission that you believed in a particular religious/political/philosophical/scientific position would get you thrown in jail or worse. Even today a frank assertion of the merits of slavery, cannibalism or eugenics will do you no good at all in the social arena. So maybe the distinction that you make simply reflects the fact that the views you would express are not dramatically different from the norm….
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