Marvin,
We must agree to disagree. I never said to only trust your gut. The additional sentences that discuss try being aware of your biases and that your experience is limited were written deliberately. You must realize that I do this professionally and it carries over to other areas of my life, such as church.
My college schedule could not accomodate the Rhetoric course. Some people suggested it was good to know for law. I wanted to take the course just to know the basics. Experienced lawyers, however, told me it was a waste of time. Law school will teach you what you need to know - if you are at a decent law school. The very bottom schools do not teach reasoning well. Well, I could no be where I was in the past or now without reasoning skills.
During stints when I do not practice, I always try to learn formal logical and rhetoric. It is not that great in real life circumstances. No lawyer ever says if only I took Rhetoric. What I could use more fruitfully is more writing courses where my paper is returned with more red ink than blue or black ink on the page. The other essential thing I could use would be experience on presenting a play and tons of actual improv experience from a good acting school.
I've never heard of any busy, successful lawyer carving out time to learn formal logic. When I read the intros to formal logic, I do it naturally. Lawyers do carve out time for hard core advanced writing coures which are expensive b/c the instructor must be much better than you. Writing keeps deteriorating in this country. Look at me. I write differently in prof'l life. Large law firms were forced to hire seasoned English profs from the most elite school to teach their associates from Harvard, Yale, etc. basic writing. Although I always received As in English, I had to work very hard to write properly. I am very conscious of what good writing can do. Sometimes I come across superb writing. Writing can seduce you. It can be a sheer joy to read.
Besides writing, most serious litigators lose money to learn improv. and stage presentation for jury trials. It is hard to find a good improv group. Also, people tend to do things that are easy for them. Improv is hard work for many lawyers. I ask their opinion because I want to know if it is worth the embarssment, hardship, and money to do it myself. Everyone who has done is almost orgasmsic about the different it made in practice.
In an ideal world, I would force people to learn Rhetoric. Sometimes, though, you know enough to get by without a formal course. Maybe I am wrong. There is enormous socialization in law school. Your brain changes. People swear they will never think that way no matter what. Never say never. The ones who swear never are the very ones who do it the most. No human can know everythiing about everything. We have time commitments. There is infinite knowledge but our brains are very limited. We can only know so many facts at one time.
I agree with you in theory. My interests are diverse For many years, I saw no advantage to knowing art history when I do civil rights law. Fashion does not help you with history. Suddenly, I finally saw integration. All my interests helped me to do my job better in some way I could never imagine. During the Renaissance and for a long time in American history, educated people knew many subjects well. Technology changed that pattern. Now we tend to be specialists over narrow areas. Practice made me know a narrow area in great depth. I pray to God that a generalist exists to co-ordinate the different specialties. I saw no evidence that there was one. Bankers are generalists. Society today needs both kinds of people.
I know my special areas very well. Nevertheless, I know in my core that I am clueless and know nothing about other areas. It terrifies me. The wonderful thing about humans is that we can barter information and skills. There is not enough time for me to learn all the skills and info that I need in my life.
My fear with my education and experience is that someone might believe that education is a miracle worker. People consider me very bright in my narrow field. They don't consider me bright outside of my field. My perspective as a Witness is that we were brainwashed not to trust our guts. Yet, particularly for women, your gut can save you from rape and torture, perhaps murder. So many times in real life my gut told me something. I dismiss my gut b/c I grew up as a Witness and what do i know. I start thinking too much. What would another culture do in the same circumstance? Is there a historical precedent?
We are animals,not computers. Hard experience that I will not reveal taught me to appreciate my gut. Sometimes it was wrong. 98 percent of the time my gut knew better than my intellect. When emergencies happen, you do not have time to reason the situation out. You need to flee and immediately flee. I suspect that many Witnesses and born-ins, in particular, pay a very high price for not trusting their gut. Why should we honor our gut more? It is not our fault. The WTBTS crippled our gut and brain connection. We must be aware that your gut feelings are important. I was two or three years old and my gut told me the Witnesses were serious bad news. My gut told me before I was old enough to reason.
Also, you may not be aware but rape prevention experts go around and tell women not to use their reason b/c it can cripple you. Trust your gut is the basic message I have heard for decades. I don't think that most decent, good men have any clue how women fear rape and how pervasive the constant fear is. Men only experience the same threat in prison. Women and men have different body strengths. Reality is reality. Martial arts may give you confidence. In normal encounters a man can win almost any time. I had to study this for professional reasons. Feminists do not suggest learning how to take down a man. There are obvious ways. When women are faced with rape, they must decide for themselves a host of things n a few seconds. Your very life depends on it. Many times being raped is better than fighting. Women can reconstruct a life after rape. It will never be the same life as before the rape. When you are murdered or mutilated,however, there is no life to resconstruct.
I don't disagree with you. My hope was to shed some light on what I learned from hard experience and many years of school/extra training. I value academia so much. Indeed, I worship it. Academics cannot function with carpenters, subway workers. Education does not make you better. You learn some skills at the risk of not developing other skills. The best way is to balance your life. I pay so much because of specializing. Before my education, I knew some carpentry, more housekeeping, etc. Don't underestimate the value of thosse skills.
