🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <43snoi$pok@news.nevada.edu>, amsler@nevada.edu (JOHN AMSLER) wrote:

> John Fereira (fereira@isis.com) wrote:
> : In article <43lsru$44d@aadt.sdt.com> leb@sdt.com writes:
> : >fereira@isis.com (John Fereira) wrote:
> : >>Stop looking for "solutions" to the dating problem.
> : >>Just get out and meet people.
> : >
> : >I think that's a little easier said than done, in this age
> : >of possible psycopaths around every corner (real or imagined).
> 
> : I never said it was easy.  Possible psychopaths around every corner?
> : Isn't that a bit paranoid?  
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Paranoid?  Hmmm.  You might want to ask the victims of Charles Manson,
> Richard Speck, Albert deSalvo, Jeffrey Dahmer, Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis
> Toole, or Gerald Gallego.  Unfortunately, you can't ... because they're
> all dead, viciously murdered not by ghosts or imaginary goblins, but by
> *real* psychopaths!  (Here's an idea:  Polly Klaas's parents are still
> around;  why don't you ask *them* about "paranoia" and "psychopaths?"  I'm
> sure they would have a unique perspective on the subject at which you seem
> to sneer.) In this corrupted, barbaric, morally rudderless, disintegrating
> "society," people -- especially women -- who don't adopt serious measures
> for their own self-defense and preservation are assuming an unacceptable
> risk ... attested to by the roster of any cemetery, the slabs of any
> morgue, or the blotter of any large-city police department!  For you to
> dismiss the matter as "paranoid" is quite haughty and condescending, at 
> least as I interpret it. 
> 
> (No personal offense is intended, of course, I'm merely responding to the
>  "Isn't that a bit paranoid?" crack.)
> 
> - John J. Amsler
>   OK, very funny, Scotty.  Now beam up my clothes!

Damn!  That's a pretty lonely attitude.  Sure!  There may be any number of
people out there who mean you harm.  For all you know, when you go to a
bar with your friends, there could be three or four rapists in there.  So
what?

Are you going to lock yourself in a closet?  You might want to consider
just being smart about it.  Walk with friends.  Never put yourself in a
situation that is asking for trouble.  (Like walking down an alley to your
car all by yourself.  Crossing a dark parking lot when leaving a bar,
restaurant, mall, etc...   Always take an extra couple of seconds to look
around you.  Observe your environment.  Be conscious of your surroundings,
the people around you, the buildings around you, etc...  But to lock
yourself away just because it's possible, is like not driving a car
because there could be a drunk driver ont he road.  Do you do that, or do
you drive defensively, observing those around, etc..

So it might take you longer.  But the length of time will depend on how
protective you THINK you have to be.  I would certainly be more cautious
in WATTS, than I would be in La Jolla.  But would I let it control my
life?  To an extent, maybe, but it really takes little time to take that
extra glance.  And if you start seeing someone, you have to LISTEN to get
any kind of indication about there character.  Do they have a lot of
friends, or just a few friends.  What kind of friend are they?  These
should be questions you always ask anyway.  

I don't think the comment made about paranoia is at all condescending.  It
just asks a question:  "Isn't that a bit paranoid?"