I once heard a guy on the radio say. “opinions are like butt holes,
everybody has one and most of them stink”. The delay button guy was on
break or something (it was a call in show). Well I don’t know about the
stink part but I do know that everyone supposedly has a butt hole.
I am a conservative American and I believe in free speech almost as
much as anyone, but this right has a dark side.
Most people, it seems, just take a viewpoint because they can. It’s
sort of like free potato chips at a party, try not to eat too many of
them. Because ‘they are there’ is the only thing I can come up with.
People take Uncle Ernie's’ position because I was rammed down their
throats or they don’t have enough time and thought to develop their
own. Another side effect is that they may go against Uncle Ern because
they were sick of hearing it or they thought he was an ass hole
(there’s that word again (DON’T FAINT). People go to the same church
their parents did and cant give a reasonable answer why. Some decide
they don’t like the president after hearing him speak for ten minutes.
If this occurs it is surely something stupid like ”he reminds me of
Bill Smith in high school and I hated him.” Another problem is that
even the truth gets old after hundreds of times and makes some take the
opposite position just because they can. This is dangerous to our
society and is a big flaw in the one person one vote system. Another
problem is that even the truth gets old after hundreds of times. But
the system is so flawed to start with we’ll leave the sleeping dog lie.
Anyone who has these foundation less opinions needs to leave the guitar
teaching to the experts and shut up. After all I was probably teaching
the day they were born and maybe when their parents were born. People
cling to this fantasy that they were born geniuses and that their
intuition overrules what the man with forty years experience has said.
IGNORANT! There is no substitute for practical experience PERIOD! I
have had quotes given to me from people as accomplished as Chet Atkins
saying, “don’t mess with scales and modes, learn songs and the lines
will come to you.” HA!!! Not everyone is a genius like Chet so it is
hard for him to picture some one not hearing their musical inner voice.
Surely you have heard the line from Zen and the Beginners Mind “Empty
your cup.” Anyone coming to me with too many preconceived notions is
robbing themselves of valuable insights. It is almost as if they are
asking “don’t teach me anything I don’t already know.” FOOLS! Read the
chapters on Denial and the Path of Least Resistance is Failure for more.
