Re: CHAT: Nov 11th

Somehow You missed the whole point, Charles.  Speaking another
person's language is no common ground whatsoever on a realistic
scale.

Will You become buddies with an Islamic extremist if he learns English?
Should/Would You have supported Hitler if he were fluent in English?
Would America have sided with the Serbs if Serbian was a distant dialect
of English?

Save America's purported fickleness, the answer *should be* no to each
question.  You can speak my language and still make me want to slap You
silly because Your beliefs/views seem so stupid/outlandish to me.

If people wanted common ground with our Islamic friend trying to go
out of his way for Allah, they would read the Islam and entertain
interpretations other than their own.  They don't--learning Islamic won't
change that.

If people wanted a common ground with Hitler, Mein Kampf would
have become a best-seller.  It did not--to the best of my knowledge.
And frankly, in this case it should not have either.

And if America wanted a common ground with Serbia than that sick
pervert of a president would not have branded Milosevic lucifer, and
perhaps the newscasts would have learned to pronounce Serbian
names properly.


----- Original Message -----
From: Charles <catty@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: Nov 11th


> Yes, exactly. And by learning an auxlang we can create
> and maintain that common ground. That's the theory;
> I don't wonder why governments won't support it.