taykair
Member
- Messages
- 363
I've been thinking about the folks who claim to be time travelers. I've met dozens and dozens of them on the internet over the years, and have even had regular correspondence with some of them. They're nice folks, most of them. If it weren't for that one little eccentricity, then they would be just as "normal" as anybody else.
I placed quotes around the word normal, not because these folks are necessarily abnormal, but because... well... because the rest of us aren't quite normal either. Each of us has beliefs which we like to rationalize into reality, but which we really can't adequately prove - or, sometimes, even explain very well.
There are, perhaps, a few of us who would like others to think that we are complete and utter realists. (No fairy tales for us. No, sir!) Deep down, though, there's probably one or two (or one or two hundred) strange notions lurking around in our skulls. We just don't talk about them - perhaps because we don't want to be treated in the same way that we sometimes treat those who claim incredible things.
Like the time travelers, for example. Sure, there are those who claim to be such just to get attention. And there are some who get their jollies by hoaxing - trying to see how many people they can make fools out of. But there are also others - many others - who really, actually, truly and deeply believe in what they are saying.
Now, of course, just because something is believed in does not necessarily make it true. (If wishes were horses... etc.) The thing is, believing in something doesn't necessarily make it false, either. This is, I think, something that we tend to downplay when interacting with others.
"That's just your opinion," we say, "and opinions are not facts."
True enough. Opinions are not facts. (That's a fact.) But each of us lives our life as if our opinions were facts. We can't help it. It's just how we're made. (Of course, that's just my opinion.)
Anyone who has read even a little of the crap that I post at this site probably knows that I don't think very much about time travel. I don't believe that we can hop into a machine that has been cobbled together out of Radio Shack and old war surplus store parts, jump back to the past, saddle up a dinosaur, and go for a ride. I don't think that we can travel into the future in any other way than by living every moment as it comes. And I seriously doubt that folks from the year ten thousand and three are just dying to come here for the express purpose of getting on ApexTV. Sorry. I just don't.
However, in spite of all that, and in spite of the fact that I'll probably make lame jokes about them, I want them - and everyone else - to know that there's no personal animosity involved, that I'm not out to make fools of them, and I'm not singling them out for abuse. Ask anybody here and they will tell you that I'm an equal-opportunity offender. (Some may prefer the word jackass, but to each his own.)
In fact, I respect the time travelers. Not the hoaxers or the attention-seekers. The ones who really believe in what they are saying or trying to do. It takes courage to put yourself out there and face ridicule. Good for you!
Take care.
I placed quotes around the word normal, not because these folks are necessarily abnormal, but because... well... because the rest of us aren't quite normal either. Each of us has beliefs which we like to rationalize into reality, but which we really can't adequately prove - or, sometimes, even explain very well.
There are, perhaps, a few of us who would like others to think that we are complete and utter realists. (No fairy tales for us. No, sir!) Deep down, though, there's probably one or two (or one or two hundred) strange notions lurking around in our skulls. We just don't talk about them - perhaps because we don't want to be treated in the same way that we sometimes treat those who claim incredible things.
Like the time travelers, for example. Sure, there are those who claim to be such just to get attention. And there are some who get their jollies by hoaxing - trying to see how many people they can make fools out of. But there are also others - many others - who really, actually, truly and deeply believe in what they are saying.
Now, of course, just because something is believed in does not necessarily make it true. (If wishes were horses... etc.) The thing is, believing in something doesn't necessarily make it false, either. This is, I think, something that we tend to downplay when interacting with others.
"That's just your opinion," we say, "and opinions are not facts."
True enough. Opinions are not facts. (That's a fact.) But each of us lives our life as if our opinions were facts. We can't help it. It's just how we're made. (Of course, that's just my opinion.)
Anyone who has read even a little of the crap that I post at this site probably knows that I don't think very much about time travel. I don't believe that we can hop into a machine that has been cobbled together out of Radio Shack and old war surplus store parts, jump back to the past, saddle up a dinosaur, and go for a ride. I don't think that we can travel into the future in any other way than by living every moment as it comes. And I seriously doubt that folks from the year ten thousand and three are just dying to come here for the express purpose of getting on ApexTV. Sorry. I just don't.
However, in spite of all that, and in spite of the fact that I'll probably make lame jokes about them, I want them - and everyone else - to know that there's no personal animosity involved, that I'm not out to make fools of them, and I'm not singling them out for abuse. Ask anybody here and they will tell you that I'm an equal-opportunity offender. (Some may prefer the word jackass, but to each his own.)
In fact, I respect the time travelers. Not the hoaxers or the attention-seekers. The ones who really believe in what they are saying or trying to do. It takes courage to put yourself out there and face ridicule. Good for you!
Take care.
