Kalessin:
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Whilst any individual is free to believe that they, individually or as part of a grouping of any sort, are more insightful, blessed or perceptive than anyone else, if they assert it in a public discussion forum by means of a flawed axiom or analogy I don't see anything wrong with challenging that. We should all challenge our own assumptions (particularly those that makes us feel superior), and continually test ourselves against the aspirations or axioms we hold dear, rather than boldly commenting on the supposed failings of others
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I seem never to have gotten my point across at all. Your unspoken axiomatic assumption is: unequal(different quantity) = inequal(social disparity). Therefore, when I generally say one group enjoys Tolkien more than another group, you seem to take it that I also say one group is therefore superior to another. That is not my position, as I have previously pointed out.
My "axiom" is not flawed if it is true. It was not an axiom to begin with, it was a general observation or assertion, which I took trouble to note as having obvious exceptions. You just went to great pains to capitalize the obvious exceptions to your generalizations in your latest post, as I had to in the lamentable [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] thread that seems coming to life again. (I say lamentable because such an argument will invariably generate more heat than light because it can resolve nothing.)
I made an assertion based upon a general understanding of like personal experience. It was not an immutable axiom and I wish that you would not continue to refer to it as such, since I have taken a great deal of time and effort to explain otherwise. It is not something that is subject to logical proof or disproof, and I cannot argue the point. The only viable challenge to such a position would be by scientific polling of Tolkien readers of various worldviews that statistically eliminates variables and reports on aggregate individual assessments of enjoyment.
Once again, this sort of position, if disputed, cannot be resolved by logical argument. It can be strengthened or weakened by statistical survey, but argument is futile unless the observation is demonstably inaccurate. This is a case that calls for inductive rather than deductive reasoning.
I hope that no Christian posting feels themselves in anyway "superior" to anyone else. In fact, our belief system holds a profoundly opposite view. But for my part, I have not been "boldly commenting on the supposed failings of others" but rather, I have asserted that "birds of a feather flock together."
Until the survey is done (hah! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ) the question of greater or lesser enjoyment by worldvies cannot be resolved, and so I must leave each to believe what they will. If you disagree, then I cannot convince you with argument and vice versa. So we must agree to disagree. Rest assured, this does not leave me feeling superior to anyone in any way. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]