From: Jasper
Date: 1/17/01
Time: 11:26:55 AM
Charlotte,
You can see I was in a big hurry when I wrote my last post. You can see where I was getting way ahead of myself, putting different ideas into the same place, rethinking appropriate metaphors, etc. There is always value in mistakes. You get a better idea from the mistakes of how my mind works and the different ways to go that I struggle with in my thinking and my writing before I choose one. But let me try it again...
Greta was so fair that I'm surprised she went anywhere. On the other hand, you need a few exceptions to the rule to make the rule appear to be reasonable. If you say, for example, that all Canadians are evil what do you do about the Canadian guy who is a model of virtue? But if you say Canadians "in general" are evil you can make a case that seems to support the general rule.
Admitting or even embracing an occasional exception to the rule will make the rule appear to be more reasonable than it is. Even Hitler believed that some Jews were O.K. It was just Jews in general who had to go. By extension, one purpose that honest people like Greta serve in a corrupt system is to make the system appear to be honest. You don't need a big tilt to make a big difference between an honest search for the truth and a deliberate attempt to impose a particular view. In fact, the more subtle the tilt the more effective it will be because fewer people will see it, and many of them will not think a few little mistakes matter that much. --Jasper