My Philosophy: Don't Trust Anyone Unless You Personally Know Them

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Charles_Wong, Dec 29, 2006.

  1. Charles_Wong Registered Senior Member

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    My view: be cynical and skeptical about everyone and everything, unless you personally know the person or personally have experienced the thing in question. Still be practical about things, but never be absolutely sure about anything. Live by this rule, and you will be deceived less, lied to less, and overall face less detrimental effects.

    And since none of you know me personally, be cynical and skeptical about me as well: don't take my word for things, rather look up the data for yourself and see how my claims fair in the real world, how much my claims add to the practicality of your life and well-being.
     
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  3. SoLiDUS OMGWTFBBQ Registered Senior Member

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    I find it amusing that you needed to add that disclaimer, as if it wasn't already obvious.

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  5. Charles_Wong Registered Senior Member

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    I too find various things amusing.

    Regards.
     
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  7. Bells Staff Member

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    How can I trust that you speak the truth?
     
  8. Charles_Wong Registered Senior Member

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    Exactly: I would have to provide statistical data showing a strong correlation between people who live by these rules and how often they end up being deceived. And then you would have to verify the data I posted to ensure I did not fabricate them or the source.

    But, I never said my claim was statistical fact: rather, I meant that it is a way of living that I believe will work as I've specified. It's worked for me, and in general, being skeptical and cynical is scientifically proper: empirical proof before placing higher probability on something being true than false, but still always remembering that "truths" can always be overturned by subsequent data/research.
     
  9. Sauna Banned Banned

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    deleted
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2006
  10. heliocentric Registered Senior Member

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    Most of you like to be obtuse for the sake of it, agreed Charles_Wong.
     
  11. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    I'd go a step further ...why should knowing someone personally make any difference? I, and I'm sure many of you, have know people quite well only to discover that they've lied to me on more than one occasion. Knowing someone personally doesn't necessarily mean anything these days, if it ever did.

    Baron Max
     
  12. francois Schwat? Registered Senior Member

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    I agree with the poster's original sentiment. Of course, you can't follow it completely. There are times when one must trust strangers, such as when you are at the air port handing off luggage. That's why you have to be practical. But I know when I'm on the phone with a representative or somebody on the phone and they say they got something done, like they sent my transcripts to the right college, I won't trust them. I'll phone the other college and inquire to make sure they did in fact receive them. It's nothing personal. It's just that experience has always showed me that it's best to make sure--even if you end up offending somebody--hopefully somebody you don't know. Sometimes the offending the other person is something I have to tread softly. Like I don't fully trust the competence of my teachers to do something they said they will. If it's somebody who's small, unsubstantial or somebody I don't really like, I'll make sure that person does it. However, if it's somebody I respect and don't want to offend, I'll lay off and trust that he/she did or is taking care of it.
     
  13. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    ...Trust No-One?
     
  14. thedevilsreject Registered Senior Abuser Registered Senior Member

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    not even yourself??
     
  15. shakushinnen Registered Senior Member

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    Hi Charles,
    Personally, unless I have reason to suspect that someone is trying to deceive me, I take them at their word. I suspect that most people say what they believe to be the truth; but I'm not always sure that what they say, is in fact, correct. I have lived long enough to know that many of the things I have believed over the years to be right, where in fact wrong, so I take, even my own beliefs, with a grain of salt.
    John
     
  16. Oniw17 ascetic, sage, diogenes, bum? Valued Senior Member

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    Not a good policy. Do you get robbed a lot?
     
  17. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Amen. The worst I've ever been ripped off was by a sweet young couple with a baby, whom I'd gotten to know really well over the course of a year. After doing each other big favors, having dinner together and stuff like that, they conned me out of a lot of money in a business deal.

    It would be one thing to say they were just professional con artists and that's what professional con artists do. But they weren't. They really were fairly ordinary people who were being nice, but they'd gotten themselves in big financial trouble and made the decision to screw me to avoid being screwed themselves.

    The moral is to spend the forty dollars to do a credit check on absolutely anyone before you start talking about big money. If it's just personal business you're talking about, like trusting people not to blab your secrets and stuff like that, you need to be cautious until you get a reading on them from other people you already trust. Open up to people gradually.

    Once you make friends that you trust, go to any length to hang onto them. You will help each other make new trustworthy friends.
     
  18. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    Well, you try to give me one good reason for doing so.

    As someone mentioned, sometimes you're forced into "trusting" people, but I don't call that trust, do you? For example, you know that guy at the fast-food hamburger joint that you like? Well, he spits onto the burgers sometimes just for the fun of it. But you're actually forced to "trust" that he doesn't do that, right?

    I can't think of one single solitary reason to voluntarily and openly trust anyone, can you? If you can, please tell me.

    Baorn Max
     
  19. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    Not even family?
     
  20. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    I think that might come under "forced" trust, don't you? I mean, yes, I think we all "trust" our family members, but is it earned? Or is it done out of social and familial conditioning?

    In the army, I learned to trust the man who was assigned to watch my back in a firefight. But ya' know, I must confess to having many second thoughts, not to mention glancing over my shoulder to make sure!

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    Baron Max
     
  21. valich Registered Senior Member

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    My view is: Don't know anyone unless you trust them!
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Yes: Because, in my opinion, faith is something we need. It goes back to our instincts as a pack-social species. We're hard-wired to care for and depend on a small number of people we know intimately. Of course there are the one-percenters in whom that instinct is so weak that they can happily live as hermits and get a satisfactory dose of human companionship every three months at the trading post. But for the rest of us, I'm convinced that if that instinct goes unfulfilled it can lead to depression, or worse.

    If modern life estranges us so from our fellow man that we truly do not know anyone intimately enough to make a judgment "beyond a reasonable doubt" about their trustworthiness, then perhaps civilization is indeed the evil you try to convince us it is.

    This is not to say that the people we trust will never disappoint us. After all, each of us is the most honorable person we know, and how often do we disappoint ourselves?

    Perhaps religion arose in the early days of village life because as we began living among people we did not know so intimately, it was harder to have faith in them. So we invented a fairy tale and transferred our faith to it. Considering that religion has been one of the most irredeemably destructive forces since the dawn of civilization, I'm not sure we wouldn't be better off trusting each other and putting up with the breaches of trust.
     
  23. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    Sorry, Fraggle, all ye're talking about is "forced" trust, which is necessary just to live with others. That's not trust, not be any means. And if you think so, then you should probably do some research into the meaning of trust.

    Fraggle: "If modern life estranges us so from our fellow man that we truly do not know anyone intimately enough to make a judgment "beyond a reasonable doubt" about their trustworthiness, then perhaps civilization is indeed the evil you try to convince us it is."

    It does, and it is!

    Just look at how modern life does estrange people from others ...in New York City, there's about a gazillion people living right beside a person, yet they don't even know them at all. Look at the Internet - it's doing more to keep people from knowing others than almost any other thing on Earth. We sit here and type messages to people that we don't even know ...and worse, most of us don't even want to know them!

    Yes, Fraggle, modern civilization is, in fact, evil! When the group of people became larger than, say fifty or so people, it began to lose cohesion and intimacy. After it reached, say 10,000, there was no cohesion or intimacy at all. And worse, modern people move so often now that getting to know people in the immediate area is a waste of time and effort. Thus we've become the very thing that we, as social animals, actually hate ...people who don't know or trust other people!

    Baron Max
     

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