A perception of the validity of the anorexia-nervosa pages at Fathers for Life

Perciva wrote:

What do you care if anorexia kills a lot or if it dosen’t? What difference does it make to you?

Since you say your site is based on facts, and since you have no idea what makes a person anorexic, why don’t you withhold judgement of the issue until you know the etiology of the disease?

I was an anorexic woman, cured many years ago now. I know why I became anorexic. I came to understand the driving force and dynamic behind the disease. With that in mind, the presumptuous angle of your writings looks rather silly. Take it from me, you are not fit to pass judgement on the personal or social impact of this condition.

Get the facts, Jack. Otherwise, you’ll be hopelessly lost, and will continue to look very foolish.

Perciva….

Hello Perciva,

Thank you for writing.

It appears that the facts presented at the anorexia nervosa pages at Fathers for Life don’t jive with your perception of reality and that that bothers you, but I will not apologize for that. The problem is yours and not mine. Facts are facts, and perceptions are biased.

As you were falling with the door into my house when you came knocking, you asked, “What do you care if anorexia kills a lot or if it dosen’t? What difference does it make to you?”

I won’t tell you why I care. I wouldn’t even tell you if the answer to your question weren’t already contained in the anorexia nervosa pages of F4L. You are just not objective enough a reader and sufficiently perceptive to have recognized the answer, in spite of it being in plain view and staring you in the face. Repeating myself won’t change your cognitive abilities.

From a logical perspective, my answer to your question doesn’t matter. A rational individual would not have asked for it to begin with. A personal opinion may be about reality, but, unless for a good cause, it should never be permitted to influence it. My opinion carries no more weight in relation to the attributes of reality than does yours or anyone else’s. The only thing that matters when measuring and evaluating reality are facts.

If you don’t like the facts, too bad. All that means is that you are in denial. Your denial of reality is totally immaterial, mainly and overwhelmingly because it is not representative of the vast majority of the people who write to Fathers for Life about anorexia nervosa.

Aside from all of that, I am sympathetic to your feeling that your personal experience with anorexia nervosa is the only yardstick by which everyone’s perceptions about anorexia nervosa must be measured. However, my sympathy does not constitute an endorsement of your views. It is nothing more than a personal expression of my condolences. It must have come as a bit of a shocker to you to find out that the affliction from which you were cured was not the dangerous and deadly disease you had imagined it to be, and that you are not as much a victim as you are a dupe.

There is no possible way you can succeed with imposing your biased perceptions as a universal moral standard on the whole world. You are wasting your time by trying to do so. You will be better off to preach your gospel to anorexia-nervosa addicts. As you should well know, those are prone to easily fall prey to distortions of reality. Still, I would like to extend my congratulations to you for having successfully kicked your habit of self-starvation.

Sincerely,

Walter Schneider
http://fathersforlife.org

This entry was posted on December 21, 2006 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Anorexia Nervosa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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