Checkerspots and Paul Cherubini

[Chuck Vaughn]

anneevans wrote:

>Paul Cherubini's bias is amazing. He never misses a chance to attack the defense of the environment. The web site promotes the conservation of animals and has chosen 
>several rare butterflies. He has conveniently forgotten that the Quino Checkerspot is
>listed under the US Endangered Species Act. He could have chosen to advise the author 
>personally of any errors. Instead he made a public attack in order to try to tell people not to listen
>to this site's message on rare species.
>
>Paul Cherubini always attacks anyone or anything that suggests environmental preservation.
>If something *might* be environmentally damaging you can be sure to see him support it.
>He sure is a Nature Hater.

I've been reading leps-l for going on 5 years and I think you grossly
misunderstand Paul. This is going to be a bit off-topic but I think it's
necessary for you to understand my statement.

This is a bit speculative on my part but I suspect, that like myself, Paul
is what Dr. David Keirsey calls a "Rational" personality type. Dr. Keirsey
is a physcologist who has spent a good portion of his 40 some odd year 
career researching and refining the Meyers-Briggs personality types. I'd
recommend that you and anyone interested take a few minutes and read about
the Rational temperament on his web site:  http://www.keirsey.com  You
might even find it interesting to find out what type you are.

To summarize a few of the key Rational traits; we are skeptical...about
almost everything and the source doesn't matter, rank and authority is open
to question just the same as a layman. We trust reason and logic, not feelings.
Things must make sense to us, if not, then the subject is open to question.
Because of our skeptical and logical approach to things we can seem aloof,
arrogant and uncaring. I assure you that this is not the case. We have great
passion for the things that interest us. 

Dr. Keirsey estimates that Rationals make up only about 6% of the world
population so in your everyday life you don't know many of us. Even on 
a scientific oriented list like leps-l where Rationals are probably 
found in disportionately large numbers, we're still the minority.

If I may speculate even a bit further, I suspect those referred to as
"Environmentalists" are what Dr. Keirsey calls the "Guardian" temperament.
Guardians trust authority...frequently without question, look to the past
as to the way things should be and worry when things are changing,
especially when in their view the change is bad. Rationals OTOH, view
change and the past relativisticly, i.e., it's only good or bad
depending on how you look at it. For example, Guardians might look back
to the days when food was more "pure" and look upon with disgust the
new fangled GM crops. Rationals might agree with the first part but also
say "But look how many more people we can feed per acre and the population
is healitier than ever!"

Don't think that last statement makes us Rationals an optimisitc and
carefree lot. On the contrary, being a 6% minority, we frequently view
the world of humanity as an emotional and illogical group and are
dismayed when others get mad at us for being logical and skeptical.
(Did this just happen to Paul?)<g>

Dr. Keirsey has dubbed the Rational temperament as the "knowledge
seeking personality". We're on a lifelong quest to know about things
and know how things work. Rationals typically regard a discussion as 
part of that quest for knowledge. When you get into a discussion with
a Rational you better have data to back up your opinions because the
Rational is looking to add to his/her knowledge base. If you have nothing
useful to add you'll be discarded. Rationals in the heat of discussion
about one of their passions can sometimes be ruthless and confrontational
in their effort to weed out errors in the search for knowledge.

Another key characterisitic about rationals is they tend to know what
they know and know what they don't know. In my case I know that I don't
know much about enotomology so I rarely have anything to offer. But I
find the wide range of discussions on this list fascinating. My interest
seldom wanes as there's almost always something new to learn. I admit that
I find myself skeptical of most of what some of the long time leps-l members
post, but Rationals are also very open-minded and sometimes I give a big
thumbs up to those I'm most skeptical of.

Finally, in case you might have misinterpreted _this_ Rational, my above
discussion is in no way meant to imply Rationals are better than any
of the other three temperaments. It's simply a discussion of differences.

Chuck Vaughn <aa6g at aa6g.org>