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What ME Disturbing? (was Personal langs et al...)

From:Brian Phillips <deepbluehalo@...>
Date:Wednesday, February 7, 2001, 15:14
Jorg,
  Thank you.  I'll take your response as a compliment.
  and here is why.
  Once you get bright enough you start to realize that 90% of what is
considered "normal" is hardly the sort of thing one would wish on one's
children.  Public schools, junk food, TV being the biggest example.  I bless
my parents for severely restricting my access to these menaces .  I intend
to pass those benefits on to my kids.  (and while I am most certainly not a
Nazi OR a socialist OR a scientologist I am most definitely a transhumanist
sort, specifically a libertarian sort. But my politics or notions about the
future of humanity are hardly topical for this list (moderater feel free to
correct me here?)
  Now...as for your other criticisms...
  I am not talking about "isolating" my children.  I am talking about
"nurturing" them.  There is a difference. I am discussing the possibility
that one might (stress the "might") be able to construct a conlang that
would be a good intro to several disparate natlangs (Eng., Mand. and ASL) in
the same way that Esperanto is an excellent intro to the Romance languages
of Europe. How is this so monstrous?  I am not suggesting that it be the
ONLY language they learn...far from it. But how is cooking up a family
language that naturally grows out of baby-signing (and allowing for early
and often communication at pre-coherent speech ages) such a "headcase"
guarantee?  Imagine the joy a set of twins or triplets might have to know
that they and their parents have something special and unique in a world of
mass-produced culture. (My Dad is a twin, it skips often in our family..and
maybe I can "encourage" that with technology..who knows?)
  It could even be argued that (far from a Nazi POV) the deliberate
inoculation of the young with new and unusual tongues brimming with
possibility (with any luck lol) is a highly appropriate response to the
extinction and decimation of natlangs in third world societies.  Balance as
it were. If you want to argue humanist morality with respect to linguistic
aquisistion. ( I am not, however, a strict humanist)
  Now we all have our points of veiw.  As far as silly fantasies of
castration or whatnot...please, such ranting does you a disservice sir. What
makes you think children who grow up with a highly intelligent father and
mother who teachs them to read at a very young age and fills a house with
good books and makes sure they learn kungfu from a young age to keep them
healthy and strong will be AT ALL "mundane"? (Leaving aside the conlang
question!) I have a whole passle of plans for them, "every good and gracious
thing" possible you may be sure!  Taken to it's logical extant you seem to
suggest I should take up truck driving, marry a stripper, and immediatly
drink myself into a stupor so my children might have the "advantages"
inherent in being just like so many other poor poor children in and around
the area I was raised. Oh and I need cigarettes too..and a WWF addiction.
monster trucks! (Silly silly)
  Gifted children are always different from their peers. It's part of having
gifts.  What I am suggesting is that we might be thinking about ways to
nurture the gift of tongues in our kids, rather than ignoring their best
interests trying to fit them into a cookie-cutter role.
  I was different, it had it's tough points, but I came through it OK with
the help of loving supportive parents.  And I would have LOVED to be able to
write down my private thoughts in a language no one else could read, or make
poems that few could understand.
  But your sort of response is way out of line sir, and I shan't make silly
flames in response.  Go take a motrin and think of your blood pressure.

brian

  d e e p b l u e h a l o
------Original Message------
From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rg?= Rhiemeier <joerg.rhiemeier@...>
To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
Sent: February 7, 2001 12:30:16 AM GMT
Subject: A DISTURBING proposal! (was Re: Personal langs and converse of>
Similarly I would include Sign/gestural components into the PPC,
> infant-signing/gesture being one of those things that fascinate me, and it > would prep them for mastering ASL. I would try to include as many > "developmentally-enriching" traits as possible. Has anyone else thought > about this sort of thing?
Yes. The Nazis, Scientology, various "transhumanists"/"posthumanists" and similar sociopaths that ought to be turned in, drugged silly and safely stowed away from humanity. This is what forensic psychiatry is for. If that boggard already has children, they should be taken away from him and cleared for adoption, for the sake of the children. If he has none yet, he ought to be castrated and NEVER ever allowed to adopt any! This is really disturbing. But even more disturbing to me is that I am apparently the first on this list to point it out how monstrous it is, while the rest of the list happily replies giving that monster ideas what kinds of difficult sounds to build into his Mengelean experiment. I am ALARMED by the apparent obliviousness of the conlang community towards such wickedness. It was people like YOU, fellow conlangers, who made Auschwitz possible! Sorry to offend you, but this must be said. That guy deserves to be locked away, sedated and securely strapped down. Jörg.