Lately, my boy and I have been having long, philosophical conversations; for no apparent reason. Last night, the DVD player stopped working, so we left the television on and talked continuously for at least an hour. I lost my voice, and even today I'm still a little hoarse.
I said something about something I'd read in Philosophy Now; how, if you're a relativist (who believes that if you believe it, then it is true), then you have to accept that the opposite is also true i.e. objectivsm - that things are either true or not, which is a logical fallacy (I think. It doesn't make logical sense, anyway).
So that turned into a discussion on religion. My boy said I should read 'American Gods', by Neil Gaimon - something about what divine beings do when people stop believing in them.
He said he disapproved of the fact that Asian immigrants tend to be under-represented in the military forces of their respective adopted countries. I said that if you get shat on as soon as you set foot on a new country, then you sure as hell aren't going to volunteer to die for it (this is true for Chinese, at least). Though there is also a cultural thing, at least with Chinese, where one's highest priority is to one's family - not to oneself, nor one's country).
The fact that my voice suffered so much must mean that my natural state is one of near-silence, or perhaps the need for a free-flowing supply of alcohol when discussing world stuff.
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