<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">Frank wrote:<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">"It looks like we'll never get there in that moment together... always light years away. Personally I think that story is a depressing pile of crap though."<BR>
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I was reminded by your post, Frank, of the great scene in Cyrano de Bergerac after he has shut down the insipid play. The Comte d'Guiche is in high dudgeon and one of his simpleton syncophantic followers says he'll put Cyrano in his place. He goes over and says "Sir, your nose, it is rather large". (Clearly language challenged as well as being witless.) Cyrano proceeds to create wonderful insults about his nose, showing what the simpleton might have said if he had an ounce of couth and wit about him. He ends by saying "You will die exquisitely." Which he then accomplishes, while composing a poem of specific form, ending the witless one's life on the last refrain.<BR>
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As for the other posts about extreme individualism, it is a growing condition (I maintain mental illness) of our society, manifesting in many ways. One is the idea that if anything 'bad' happens to us, somebody is going to pay, and pay big. Thus, hot coffee in one's lap demands tens of thousands of dollars in recompense. There are literally dozens of similiarly assinine examples of our legal system run amok, reflecting the mentality that consequences shouldn't happen to me. <BR>
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I was deeply saddened that the woman felt it was perfectly ok to come up and absolutely traumatize Birgitt by screaming at her because some line of the woman's psyche had been crossed by holding hands. Had she not grasped the law of two feet? She was clearly mentally unbalanced in doing so. Did anyone check if the other folks there LIKED holding hands? No, of course not. The central illness of extreme individualism is that </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><I>my view of the world will prevail and I will not suffer any consequences for my choices inside that view.</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"> It negates the good of the whole, in my opinion. Not to mention clogs our courts with lawsuits that increase all our insurance costs and the cost of the goods. We want a consequence-less life for our decisions. Reality, thy name is </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><I>me.</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
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Paul Everett</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT></HTML>
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