Two bits of dialogue jumped out at me last night while watching "Legend Of The Seeker". Since the concept of the show and books lends itself to asking "truth oriented" philosophical questions, I came up with a couple for last night's show.
Kahlan: You can't ask me to change my beliefs!
Richard: And you can't ask me to change mine!
In the show, a baby's life hung in the balance during this conversation and the argument hit a stalemate at this point as they both surrendered themselves to this overly sensitive mentality. Why can we not ask each other to change our beliefs? I agree that we can't "demand" that someone change their beliefs. But why can we not ask someone, in light of good evidence and solid reasoning, to change their belief on an issue? I mean, I can always say "no", can't I? What's the harm in asking if the request is accompanied by good reasoning?
Well, in this episode, good reasoning didn't seem to be a weapon in anyone's arsenal. Richard wasn't acknowledging the potential problems with his opinion and Kahlan seemed to think that tradition was reason enough to hold onto hers. I suppose if we never talk about the REASONS for our beliefs it woulds be counterproductive to ask someone to change their mind, but is there any reason to avoid a discussion like that outside of the obvious difficulty of keeping cool and exercising emotional self-control?
Maybe we've forgotten that emotional self-control is a virtue. I mean, we keep hearing that we should just "follow our hearts" anyway, right? Maybe that means we should follow our emotions. We seem to be living in a time when emotions trump all else. Make no mistake. I'm a very emotional guy. I cry at the end of "The Iron Giant" and "Frequency" and "Big Fish" every time I see them. But emotions can't be the guiding elements when we're trying to determine what's true and what isn't. Emotions are our RESPONSE to reality. Not what TEACHES us reality.
Zedd, in trying to explain why a baby must die, said to Richard, "Evil is in its(the baby's) nature!" Richard responded, saying "Well it's not in mine!"
Really, Richard? There's no evil in your nature? No selfishness? No tendency to serve yourself before others? Ever? Being less than good(the opposite of evil) all the time never comes "naturally" to you?
Wow. I guess you must be perfect. Unless your definition of "evil" only includes, murder, sadism, rape, stealing, hatred.... y'know the "really bad" stuff. Maybe you just have "kinda evil" in your nature.
(Sigh.) I can't believe they gave this guy the Sword of TRUTH...
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