Were we the Artisans of Old?

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I can see your point re the more casual approach regarding respect for teachers.

I am actually referring to knowledge, trades and crafts experience rather than school teachers, which is a whole different area. In fact, I have students who want to call me Miss, who are straight out of school, and I discourage this, as our college is an adult learning environment. I don’t expect them to call me Dr, and I hate the term, ‘Miss’ because of its connotations (although most of the students would not understand this on my part). It is habit for them, and I say to them, look, if you can’t call me by my first name, just call me Doc. Some of them do - there’s a bit of humour in this.

What I am talking about is how willing many (not all) of these students are to be engaged with the task of creating something worthwhile, and although they may respect your knowledge of the software etc. they are not willing to participate in critiques, or the process of refining work. It is that they will present their work without showing it first, even though we ask.

As for respect for politicians etc., this has much to do with the media, and their sensationalism regarding any wrongdoing by society’s leaders. It is not that these people were suddenly corrupt in this decade, but it was not that reported in the past. Do you remember the Profumo affair during the Cold War, there was an example of how the rot set in. Also, I do agree that this sort of thing should be reported, but unfortunately, it has lead to the hopelessness and cynicism of today. Another thing is that with this kind of public feeling, facism could rise again, and that is a very big worry.

I agree that respect has to be earned, but it is another type of respect that I am talking about, and that is respect for qualifications and experience. Isn’t this the very reason that our crafts and science skills have been disrespected at the expense of social skills?

It's not just the western culture, I am facing the same problems, but again Lebanon is too westernized compared to the other countries in the region, so maybe it's a western thing.

Most jobs' ads nowadays mention requirements such as "good interpersonal skills, good communications ..." , all communication-related skills. Even in non-salesperson jobs, weird.

Most interviewers nowadays take a checklist paper and a pencil and start rating your body language , your pattern of speech , your eye contacts...

I am finding a hard time to get a better job because of this, I am finding even a hard time to impress my CEO/bigboss in my current job , he admitted many times that I am a hard worker , but when I try to mention about wanting to be promoted or to expand my tasks he tells me that I am still too socially awkward for this and not ready for it yet.

....and I strongly believe that Asperger's syndrome is not an organic disorder and not related to the Classic severe autism, it's more a rare type of introvert personality which is no more desired in the modern world .Because it became undesired, people started to judge these individuals with this rare type of personality as they have something not right, those individuals themselves started to feel that they have something deeply wrong. The label of Asperger's syndrome was created to categorize those people.


It will become worse in the future, shyness will be viewed as a disorder and a label such as DickWood's syndrome will be created to label shy people, other undesired rare traits such as tomboyish, timidness and unpredictably will be labeled as SomeIdiotFamilyName' Syndrome and relate it to a some ASD or Schizophrenic or retardation spectrum without any strong scientific basis.

Those people will start to feel depressed for being not approved and psychiatrists start fill them with stimulants or antidepressants which usually don't help at all...

Only the mainstream socially straightforward people will be the mentally 'sane' people in the future.

That wasn't a coincidence, dear user.

Last edited by LePetitPrince on 09 Aug 2009, 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Now this you say, LPP, worries me all the more... I thought it was an American influence thing, never thought it might be also true for the Arab world... Now I'm confused again...if it's not a sign of the decadence of the American Empire, as Meta says, then what the hell is really going on? A global power conspiracy against something??? Sounds like while they keep us nations busy fighting with each other, the invisible powers that be are creating a totally new world whose bases we can't even start to understand...?

LPP, brilliant observation. I totally agree. I can remember how people admired and appreciated my having "an original personality" 30 years ago, and nowadays all that has become "a disorder", going worse and worse till nowadays I can't even work. What I don't understand is why you call it "introverted personality". I'm extremely extroverted, not shy in the least, and it doesn't make any difference.

^^ well most people here are introvert ,but maybe AS = just untypical personality? and not necessarily introvert? it can be. But I still stand with the 'no more desired personality theory'.

Maybe you're introverted but not Aspie, LPP? Aspie's central trait is the impossibility to acquire a Theory of Mind and use intuition to navigate social relations. Nothing's said about extroversion or introversion. Your theory, of course, still applies regardless.

^maybe, even tho I always find hard time to relate to others and to understand others' minds.

The Theory of Mind is vague and unclear, if truly AS means the impossibility of acquiring the Theory of Mind then this forum would become a total mess, users would keep fighting each others because no one can understand that others have ideas/beliefs different from one's own, and that would cause non-ending clashes here. Don't you think so?

When I say ToM, I mean the neurological function that is inborn and develops at age 3-4, which makes a person able to learn intuitively what humans in general are like. This is the official definition of ToM. Eg: when my siblings turned 5, they already had a huge advantage over me regarding knowing how mom (and auntie, and granny) would probably react to certain things we did or didn't do. That gap turned abysmal as we grew older of course. I did catch up a little bit, eventually, by researching humans intellectually. But it was too little too late to even start measuring up to them, and not intuitive, so it's awkward at best.

[Off-topic: what is it you Lebanese guys put in the salad that makes it taste like you just now picked the vegetables from the tree - that's how fresh it tastes, so it doesn't need any salad dressing! Is there a secret?]

Huh? We just use ...fresh vegetables?


Sorry , I can't reveal the secret to the enemy .

I think the secret is some herb similar to mint that makes the salad feel so fresh in the mouth (as well as very fresh ingredients, you're right). Could you tell me the name of the herb, so I can buy it in the Soukh?

Back on topic, this reminds me of the secret for how excellent hummus is made, according to the best hummus artists in East Jerusalem: by refusing to go with the times and keeping hummus-making in the hands of the artisans of old.

This might be a significantly less far fetched theory if not for the fact that people with AS, as a group are characterized by personalities as diverse from each other as non AS peoples’ personalities are diverse from each other.

How or why did this “personality type” become undesirable simultaneously to the extent that pre school children picked up and practiced this prejudice without anyone telling them to, without having ever encountered such a person before? Just on mass, one day this personality type, became undesirable to all and sundry, even pre school children who had never encountered such persons before and who had not been forewarned that such personalities existed?

Not me, Im a shite worker.



I find this hilarious, because all I see on this board are opinion clashes... its like WWIII a lot of the time

squeezed lemon + olive oil

Last edited by LePetitPrince on 11 Aug 2009, 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ok, I'll take your word, but I thought there was a green herb too.

A salad of words topic

Some cultures just know how to do salad. My North American salad is just lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers. green onions, green peppers and ranch dressing, Maybe with croutons.

At any rate, I had better get on topic, and write what I intend to say.

Nowadays there is so much junk for sale, and it is such bad quality (like my salad?) that you need to have good customer skills in order to sell it. In the good old days, things would not be as common or bought as frequently, and better quality, so the goods would sell themselves. But competition would not be as stiff (just one grocery store in a whole town) so you would not need to be pushy and push the sell button so much. So the artisans of old did not have to go far and wide to do business. Selling cars now must be just one hell of a job.