Will Schryver Goes After Chap and Mr. Stakhanovite at MAD

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

More rage and anger from Mr. Misogyny (a.k.a. Will Schryver) over on the MAD Board:

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/55679-of-critics-and-cynicism/

[_Some Schmo]

More rage and anger from Mr. Misogyny (a.k.a. Will Schryver) over on the MAD Board:

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/55679-of-critics-and-cynicism/

Can you just quote the pertinent stuff? Visiting that site causes brain cancer.

[_Buffalo]

You get the impression that apologists like Will have an awfully high opinion of themselves. Any criticism of them is akin to a criticism of the entire Church and God himself.

[_Jhall118]

Its kind of funny that instead of actually engaging with the arguments... he just quotes scriptures and bounces.

What a douche.

I guess that "I'm not posting in forums anymore" actually translates to "I am only going to post in a forum that no one can respond to".

[_schreech]

More rage and anger from Mr. Misogyny (a.k.a. Will Schryver) over on the MAD Board:

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/55679-of-critics-and-cynicism/

So, what religion does that douche actually belong to?:

MI'ism
Willy'ism
Mo'ism
MDB'ism
Douche'isim
Joe-smith-wasnt-a-complete-charlatan'ism
KEP-is-Cypher'ism

I seriously can't tell what religious belief he is actually defending/discussing....I think the windmills are becoming more and more threatening to him...

[_Yoda]

Visiting that site causes brain cancer.

ROTFLMAO! Thanks for the well-needed laugh during a very busy day, Schmo!

My love for you should never be questioned. I just risked brain cancer bringing this over for you. ;-)

In the small-minded world of the Great and Spacious Trailer Park, the finger pointing and laughter of the perpetual cynics continues unabated, notwithstanding the departure from their midst of myself, Professor Peterson, and several other believing Latter-day Saints who have come to the conclusion that nothing worthwhile can ever come of participation there. Of course, they flatter themselves that it is the inherent strength of their arguments, and the corresponding weakness (as they see it) of Mormon truth claims, that has compelled our departure. Devoid of any sense of irony, they are trumpeting their triumph, and heaping ridicule on what they would have others believe to be the hollow boldness of the believer.

A recent post there exemplifies the blindness of intellectual pride run amok:

Quote

Quote
MrStakhanovite wrote:
You shouldn’t be insulted Dan, you should be ashamed. Ashamed you didn’t do proper research, ashamed this made it to print, ashamed you tried to engage secular thought without even familiarizing yourself with it’s [sic] current state.


I think that an early stage of his life DCP learned the habit of what Francis Bacon called 'boldness', perhaps as a response to teasing. Now he can't let it drop, even when it makes him look foolish.

In the essay below, I think it is the bit I have put in ... well ... bold that is most relevant here.

Quote
Of Boldness

IT IS a trivial grammar-school text, but yet worthy a wise man’s consideration. Question was asked of Demosthenes, what was the chief part of an orator? he answered, action; what next? action; what next again? action. He said it, that knew it best, and had, by nature, himself no advantage in that he commended. A strange thing, that that part of an orator, which is but superficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be placed so high, above those other noble parts, of invention, elocution, and the rest; nay, almost alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is plain. There is in human nature generally, more of the fool than of the wise; and therefore those faculties, by which the foolish part of men’s minds is taken, are most potent. Wonderful like is the case of boldness in civil business: what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness. And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to other parts. But nevertheless it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot, those that are either shallow in judgment, or weak in courage, which are the greatest part; yea and prevaileth with wise men at weak times. Therefore we see it hath done wonders, in popular states; but with senates, and princes less; and more ever upon the first entrance of bold persons into action, than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural body, so are there mountebanks for the politic body; men that undertake great cures, and perhaps have been lucky, in two or three experiments, but want the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out. Nay, you shall see a bold fellow many times do Mahomet’s miracle. Mahomet made the people believe that he would call an hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers, for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill. So these men, when they have promised great matters, and failed most shamefully, yet (if they have the perfection of boldness) they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado. Certainly to men of great judgment, bold persons are a sport to behold; nay, and to the vulgar also, boldness has somewhat of the ridiculous. For if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not but great boldness is seldom without some absurdity. Especially it is a sport to see, when a bold fellow is out of countenance; for that puts his face into a most shrunken, and wooden posture; as needs it must; for in bashfulness, the spirits do a little go and come; but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay; like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir. But this last were fitter for a satire than for a serious observation. This is well to be weighed; that boldness is ever blind; for it seeth not danger, and inconveniences. Therefore it is ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right use of bold persons is, that they never command in chief, but be seconds, and under the direction of others. For in counsel, it is good to see dangers; and in execution, not to see them, except they be very great.


I am reminded of the words of Isaiah:

Quote
Isaiah 5:21

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!


And also the proverb:

Quote
Proverbs 30:12

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.


Most apropos of all, these words from what is perhaps the greatest speech of the career of Theodore Roosevelt, delivered to an audience of the would-be intellectual elite of Europe:

Quote
You and those like you have received special advantages; you have all of you had the opportunity for mental training; many of you have had leisure; most of you have had a chance for enjoyment of life far greater than comes to the majority of your fellows. To you and your kind much has been given, and from you much should be expected. Yet there are certain failings against which it is especially incumbent that both men of trained and cultivated intellect, and men of inherited wealth and position should especially guard themselves, because to these failings they are especially liable; and if yielded to, their- your- chances of useful service are at an end. Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twisted pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is none easier, save only the rôle of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier."

Citizenship in a Republic, Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910


The apostate from Mormonism takes pleasure in sneering at those who remain faithful to its precepts and convinced of its truth claims, oblivious to the pride that has blinded them and filled them with derision towards the truly valiant. For my own part, I would rather stand with one Hotspur against a thousand of the young would-be intellectual lords who "but for the vile guns" would have been valiant soldiers.

[_Spurven Ten Sing]

Hahaha, Stak, when did you convert? I'da bought you a set for the swim!

[_Nomad]

More rage and anger from Mr. Misogyny (a.k.a. Will Schryver) over on the MAD Board:

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/55679-of-critics-and-cynicism/

Thanks for the link. Great post. Just dripping with "rage and anger" and tons of "misogyny". I especially liked the Teddy Roosevelt quote.

[_MrStakhanovite]

wait...

what?

[_Buffalo]

More rage and anger from Mr. Misogyny (a.k.a. Will Schryver) over on the MAD Board:

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/55679-of-critics-and-cynicism/

Thanks for the link. Great post. Just dripping with "rage and anger" and tons of "misogyny". I especially liked the Teddy Roosevelt quote.

Way to pat yourself on the back, Will.