[Tango-L] Nebulism

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

Cool your jets folks. Somehow, I have a completely
different interpretation of Sergio's posts than some
you. In his initial post he wrote "When I read Derik's
notes I knew he was upset about something but I was
not sure I quite understood the reason for his
frustration; now after reading Michael's last few
notes I think I understand better." He does not
condone Derik's bad behavior. He acknowledges Derik's
feelings and even tries to validate them. Most people
who responded seem to believe that validating Derik's
feelings is the same as agreeing with his outrageous
beliefs. Nothing Sergio wrote implies that he agrees
with Derik's views of the Argentine people or the
Argentine tango.

No reasonable person believes that Derik knows more
about the Argentine people than Alberto or Debbie.
Sergio has a long history of reasonable posts, and he
was born and raised in Argentina. I think we all owe
him enough respect to understand that he his intention
in validating Derik's feelings was not to validate
Derik's beliefs. So maybe we could give a little more
consideration to Sergio's post before lashing out.

Several people have pointed out that attacking Derik
does not serve any useful purpose. Rather, it produces
more and more outrageous counterattacks. Whenever
Derik feels embattled, his response seems to be to
fight or flee. It doesn't seem likely that he is going
to flee. If you want to drive him off the list, expect
a long drawn out ugly fight.  On the other hand, if we
can provide a safe environment, maybe his cerebral
cortex will come out to play, and he will become a
valuable member of the list. Maybe by acknowledging
the validity of Derik's feelings, Sergio has taken the
first step in that direction.

Derik is certainly not the only one who can be
threatened into a fight or flight response. That
response is hardwired into the most primitive of
brains. We humans our quite proud of the rational
power of our massive cerebral cortex, but the fact is,
as soon as we feel threatened, the cerebral cortex is
overridden by that little part of the brain that we
share with reptiles and amphibians. Something Sergio
wrote about the ancient history of this list triggered
a fight response from Tom, and Tom's response then
triggered a fight/flight response from Sergio. These
responses aren't logical, but they are perfectly
reasonable.

So why can some people control that response better
than others? If I ever figure it out, I'll let you
know. I do know that the brain stem is a blind, deaf
and dumb control freak. It can't even read these
posts. The trick might be to train the big brain to
edit the information that it allows through to the
small brain. 

Sean

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