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Wernfried Haas <amne@g.o> posted |
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20070531152120.GC12074@×××××××××.rechner, excerpted below, on Thu, 31 May |
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2007 17:21:20 +0200: |
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> Saying "one of the few remaining sane" people is a generally |
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> negative statement that is judgemental towards the whole community, |
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> which is what the the CoC/proctors are supposed to proactively |
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> discourage. |
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Please don't take this wrong, but I'm guessing you aren't a native |
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English speaker and thus didn't realize the common turn of phrase. |
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Alluding to "this crazy world" or "this insane world" is a common way in |
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English of expressing empathy with the one you are replying to. The |
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immediate corollary then is that sane people would recognize the insanity |
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of it all, too bad there's so few of those left now days. |
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It's a turn of phrase. It doesn't have to make exact literal sense, but |
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hopefully that helps. |
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Rewording Ciaranm's reply, therefore, it can be read roughly as: |
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"It's a crazy world we live in that you find it necessary to leave, but |
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sometimes life just doesn't make sense, and you /do/ have to get a new |
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perspective on things, a change of scene, in ordered just to maintain |
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your sanity." The reference to a "few" then would be to the (seemingly) |
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few still around, who've had enough experience to recognize how crazy it |
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can get, at times, and they are contrasted against the insanity of the |
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system that so many have left, that is, against the system itself, not |
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against the other devs, who are in fact implied to be on their way toward |
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the same "seen it all and yes, it can be insane, sometimes" experience. |
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Again, I recognize that's exactly the literal meaning of the words when |
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strung together, but that's because the thought is now more than the sum |
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of its parts, having accumulated cultural meaning over the passage of |
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time. |
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Hopefully, that explains a bit why so many native English speakers seem |
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shocked at the offense you took. Next time, perhaps the reference will |
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make better sense. =8^) |
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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