🚀 go-pugleaf

John Fereira (fereira@isis.com) wrote:
: In article <43snoi$pok@news.nevada.edu> amsler@nevada.edu (JOHN AMSLER) writes:
: >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.)
:  
: I still stand behind it.  I do not deny that there are a lot of loonies
: out there and in fact was touched personally by the Polly Klaas case.  Her
: body was found near a spot that was kind of a landmark for me in my
: youth when we went up to visit my grandparents a hundred miles or so
: north of there.  I don't deny that psychopaths exists but I don't expect
: to find one around every corner either (you seemed to miss that part).  

OK, certainly not around "*every* corner" -- that would truly be paranoid,
I agree; it just seems to me that too many people get
murdered/mugged/kidnapped/raped because they don't exercise prudent
caution. 


: Maybe it's where you live but I don't even lock the doors of my house or
: car at night.  

Consider yourself lucky!  That was the way things were when I was growing 
up (b. 1958) in northern lower Michigan, but today -- at least here in 
Las Vegas -- not locking your home and/or your car at night is asking for 
trouble.


: I'm not saying that people should not exercise a reasonable
: amount of caution when they get out at night but I'm a pretty good judge
: of character and am not going to put myself in a position where I might be
: in danger.  

More people should be lucky enough to have your judgment!


: For the most part I think it's reasonable safe for someone to
: at least be friendly to the clerk at the 7-11 or someone you might happen
: to be standing next to in the produce section of the supermarket.  

Agreed!


: Perhaps
: another social skill that needs to be learned is how to make small talk
: with a stranger without being threatening.  

Agreed!


: I seem to be able to do that.
: If someone I've said hello to seems overly cautious about responding I'll
: just leave them alone.  

: > In this corrupted, barbaric, morally rudderless, disintegrating "society,"

: Oh my.  Like I said, I don't know where you live but perhaps you should
: consider relocating.

Regardless where one lives, I believe the above *aggregate*
characterization of our 'society" would still hold. 


: -- 
: John Fereira
: fereira@isis.com
: Isis Distributed Systems - Ithaca, NY


Best wishes!

- John J. Amsler