Probably the best way for you to understand just how different or similar I am to you, and therefore how dissimilar I am from you, is to provide my opinions on some of the more probing questions of our time. I'll start with the most classifying and work my way down to the most boring.
By the way, don't expect my opinions to be easily mappable onto the answers you need to hear to make your life easily understood. Understanding is not easily attained. Its the characteristic of understanding that makes it a worthwhile pursuit and the resultant vested interest which makes it so hard to displace incorrect understanding with reality.
Do I believe in God? - What we see all around us (microscopic to macroscopic) has far too many problems resolved and an unrealistic lack of examples of unsuccessful resolutions to have been resolved entirely by accident, despite the billions of years of existence of the universe. However, there is much too much around us (infinity) for it to have all been created and resolved via a single concerted effort. The intelligence that resolved most of the problems is as advanced above us as we are above common bacteria. The term God is far too absolute for my taste. I wouldn't want Amazon indian tribes to refer to me as a God simply because my education and technology are far in advance of theirs. However I would like to someday meet up with an extreme level of intelligence, which I will provide a guarded respect. I was reared and educated as a Catholic, but no longer practice that specific faith. I have been to more than a few forms of religious institutions and services and have found both strengths and weaknesses in all of them. The core of all of them seem to include tolerance and a desire to advance a belief in equality of all individuals despite shortcomings. I like that. I guess you could best call me an agnostic. My verdict is out due to insufficient evidence.
Do I believe in UFOs? - I believe there are recorded examples of flying objects which the public has yet to have identified to their satisfaction. That is a qualified yes in that I don't believe that all of them were piloted by extrateristerials. I believe that a more than trivial portion of them were piloted by military representatives of more than one nation of this earth.
Do I believe in extrateristerial intelligence? - I don't need any evidence other than the night sky to be able to say a definite yes. I am not so arrogant to believe that we are unique in the universe, rather it is my belief that we are quite common, not all that advanced, and thus our belief that we are unique in the universe. Once the evidence of reality is revealed, the believers in our uniqueness in the universe will very reluctantly fall away just as they did when it was confirmed that our sun, not the earth, is the center of our solar system. By the way, you were aware of the fact that our solar system is neither the center of our Milky Way galaxy nor is our galaxy at the center of the known universe. We're nearly there. Keep you mind open.
Am I conservative or a liberal? - Nearly all faiths on this planet believe in the concept that I am indeed my brother's keeper. I too believe in that premise. I believe that there are individuals on this planet that, for whatever reason, shouldn't be assumed to contribute to society at the same level as the majority. Sure there are those that can and should improve. However you must agree that if the number of those that can't support themselves is larger than zero then we must set aside some of our benefits to bring these individuals to a level of life that we deem minimally acceptable. Those of us who are better off did not get that way entirely by the activities we decidedly executed during our life. We are born to society position and financial status. We can improve or diminish our position based upon the decisions we make during our life. Our life can also be improved or diminished by the decisions of others in our lives, regardless of whether we approve of the decision or not. There are those that make decisions to deliberately diminish the lives of select groups in order to increase their own position by inducing an inequality. Equality should be quality of life based. It should not financially based. We need to define that level of life and see that all individuals on the planet are migrated towards that level of life despite their shortcomings. I guess that classifies me a liberal, however I do agree with the conservatives who believe that their life's financial standing should not be diminished to raise the financial standing of those capable of raising it own their own. I am extremely concerned with the current conservative cold turkey approach to the reduction of financial support expenditures. For those on the bottom rung of society it is far easier to take the chance and resort to crime when you can no longer keep food on your family's table. Welfare is far cheaper than prisons.
Do I prefer a PC or a Macintosh? - Actually I would prefer to use an Amiga, however since that is no longer practical, I guess I will use a PC, its cheaper and more capable than a Mac and more likely to be around in three years, at least running the current Mac OS and applications.
Monroe Wyatt Pattillo, Jr. (MWP)
monroe.pattillo@monroepattillo.com
Site installed: 09 Jan 97 by MWP
Site updated: Sunday, 12-Jun-2005 09:40:16 EDT by MWP