My tastes in all things lean towards the arty and boring. I like sports documentaries about Scrabble players bands that play quiet unassuming music and TV shows that win awards. In that way I am an elitist snob.
Assuming that man has a distinct spiritual nature a soul why should it be thought unnatural that under appropriate conditions of maladjustment his soul might die before his body does or that his soul might die without his knowing it?
The standard rumor at the time was that Rumsfeld as chief of staff had persuaded President Ford to appoint George H.W. Bush as director of Central Intelligence assuming that that got rid of a potential competitor for the presidency.
I can't see what's wrong about assuming intelligence in your audience and what's bad news about being rewarded for assuming that.
I align myself with almost all researchers in assuming that anything we do is a composite of whatever genetic limitations were given to us by our parents and whatever kinds of environmental opportunities are available.
It's interesting because a lot of my 16-year-old kids' friends know me from 'Wedding Crashers ' and not so much Bond. My kids have a good laugh. I was 20 then. The look I had then was the look that a lot of their friends are assuming now. They think it's cool. What goes around comes around.
As human beings we are vulnerable to confusing the unprecedented with the improbable. In our everyday experience if something has never happened before we are generally safe in assuming it is not going to happen in the future but the exceptions can kill you and climate change is one of those exceptions.
I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone best both for the body and the mind.