Establishing a Common Reference Point
©
August 2022,
P. Arthur Stuart
pastuart@pastuart.com
Throughout my writings, I've stated,
“I want to know what is correct and not who’s correct.” And I want to be honest/truthful, however, where my life is in danger and the issue is an “It Just Doesn't Matter,” I will avoid the truth. Let me explain, if a woman, for example, asks me if her butt looks big in her new pants or dress, I'd likely say something to the effect, “Your ass looks great.” Only an insane man would say, "Yes." For what it’s worth, I want to be a truthful man in all respects. And in a lot of conversations where I know someone is spouting bullshit, I just don't say anything. I've found it’s not worth it and nearly everyone I've met has no desire to know the truth. I explain this on my page
"We Believe (What We Want To Believe.)" So far, no one has ever came back to me and said they were wrong. Oh, incidentally, when I find out another person is correct, I will go back and apologize. If I'm right, it ends with me; again,
“I want to know what is correct and not who’s correct.”.
Before I move on, let me clear the air. Have I lied? Unfortunately, I have to confess, “Yes.” Will I lie in the future? I hope not. By lie, I mean saying something I know not to be true, as I understand the truth. Will I say something that isn't accurate or true (by definition, it is a lie) that I believe is correct, probably but if I learn later I was wrong, I will own it and if necessary apologize. What I'm saying is that I will not lie intentionally. Unlike many people I know, should someone offers contradictory information; I will check it out.
Throughout these pages, for the sake of understanding, let's establish some common points of reference. I'm going to use this page to define what I mean when I speak on the various subjects of this website. I'm doing this because a friend told me the first thing you need to do in making a point is to insure the other person is looking at the topic from the same viewpoint—not to be confused with point of view. A simple example is two people are standing in front of a door. One says the door swings to the right, the other says it swings to the left. Both are correct, it just depends on which side of the door your standing on. So, this page is to hopefully put you on the same side of the door that I'm on — metaphorically speaking. Furthermore, to have a meaningful conversation there needs to be agreement on, not only where you're standing, but also on word meanings and what are the agreeable truths/facts; there are a few other things. For example: If you were to discuss World War II, you would have to agree that it did occur, which countries were involved, what side they were on, and other related topics; the list is long, depending on the issue being discussed.
My definitions for the following terms:
- Everyone or Nobody means 1 to 5 in a million. Example -- Nobody wants the earth to explode and kill everyone, yet there are probably some out there that would think this is a great idea.
- Most: More than a simple majority, let’s say greater than sixty-six percent.
- Majority: means more than half.
- Large Number or Many: means 25 percent but less than 50 percent.
- A few: Less than ten percent.
Stupid — The following are definitions found in several dictionaries:
- Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
- Silly or unwise; showing poor judgment or little intelligence:
- Not intelligent:
- having or showing a lack of ability to learn and understand things
- Slow to learn or understand; obtuse.
- Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.
- Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless:
According to Mr. Carlo Cipolla, author of the book "The 5 Basic Laws of Human Stupidity," a stupid person is someone that does something to harm others without any gain and possibly also hurts themselves as well. I need to include the person that just harms themselves. For a more comprehensive documentation on the research I did about stupidity, goto my webpage Stupidity
Lie—something that is known not to be true. There is no simple answer to knowing what is true.
Liar—someone who states something and knows it’s not true. I do not believe someone is a liar when they say something that’s not true (by definition, it is a lie) when they believe it to be true. I'm having difficulty explaining. Let’s say a true ‘Flat Earther’ believer, not a psychopath, were given a lie detector test. The result would likely indicate the person were telling the truth as they believe it.
Truth—I would also like to establish a common understanding of what the word "Truth" means: The following are definitions found in several dictionaries:
- Conformity to fact
- Something accepted as true
- That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.
- A fact or belief that is accepted as true.
- The body of real things, events, and facts
- A judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true
- The real facts about a situation, event, or person
- A fact or principle that is thought to be true by most people
- The actual fact or facts about a matter
- A statement or principle that is generally considered to be true
- The actual facts or information about something, rather than what people think, expect, or make up
Smart and Knowledgeable—I have found that smart is frequently used for knowledgeable, e.g., he's smart (should be knowledgeable) he knows a lot about the statistics related to baseball history. What I'm attempting to say is that knowing statistics only takes memory; that's knowledgeable. Smart is the ability to solve problems, do research and reach a conclusion, determine how something works, learn and apply facts, ... I guess I'm saying is that 'smart' means a person can reason and analyze given facts; then come to a conclusion that is correct or beneficial. So, for me, the below is how I use Smart (Intelligent), Knowledgeable, and Wisdom:
- Knowledgeable: Knowing a fact.
- Intelligent (smart): Knowing how to use the fact.
- Wisdom: Knowing when to use the fact.
Acronyms
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