---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 15:30:25 -0400
From: BillJanie@aol.com
To: pcp@mailbase.ac.uk
Subject: Kelly was Smug but I Forgive Him
Gary,
I don't think I received your posting Big Bad Wolf and Em. I do appreciate
your benefit of the doubt in your posting to Allessandra.
Concerning arrogance. There is no more henious arrogance than hiding behind
sophomoric false modesty and irresponsibility. And certainly Kelly did not
have Maslow's Jonah Complex, at least not very often. He is very critical in
much of his writing. He even comes across smug. The smugness foible is one of
the things that attracks much of the cultic riff raff to PCP along with their
poorly read assumption that he was a relativist, just because he was not an
absolute absolutist. (I know, they are only words, so no one should be
offended. Let them be their stupid, fat, humble selves while you and I pursue
an unreachable perfection and maybe a little integrity along the risky way of
mere words.) The thing about Kelly is that his theory has a self- correcting
component to it, at least for those with sufficient IQ to understand it. Even
after we stop condescending to the behaviorists and fundamentalists, there
is still that recognition that personal constructs and experimentation are
means to at least half truths. And for Kelly, half truths are a lot better
than a pack of lies. There are so many liars in PCP that anyone who tells the
truth comes across as self righteous. If I have to play this game to blow the
whistle, I will. I was dismissed as a nut the day I first published honest
research. True, I would rather be discussing mathematical groups theory, but
sassing the cyclops is ok. I have had a lot of fun on this PCP net. A lot
more than the old boys have of late.
What do you think of tesselation as a model of construct elaboration? Have
you ever known someone to kill herself? Could Bob Neimeyer have stopped her?
How many construct psycholgists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three;
One to buy the airplane tickets, One to give the invited address, and One to
hold a fool down while the others screw it in. Life's tough when you is a
pig farmer. De words find they own meaning, until Noman closes the doe to de
big banket hall.
Read or hear Kelly, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and James Joyce. Then tell me
they are only words.
Eumaeus
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%