Misconceptions: Rational

[fuzzynavelnot21]

What are common misconceptions about the Rational? Using Keirsey Temperament Theory, can you refute them?

[The Grey Badger]

I'm going to let novelist Neal Stephenson answer this one, since he did so so delightfully.

[#1] Depicts us as clowns with a sinister aspect. At the beginning we are shown, say, prancing around with butterfly nets or looking at shapes in the clouds... but ina second phase a dark side is shown - an impressionable youngster is seduced, a responsible mother lured into insanity, a political leader led into decisions that are pure folly...it comes from a satirical play [written in classical antiquity]."

[#2 comes from] ... an adventure drama about a military spaceship sent to a remote part of the galaxy... The captain of the ship was passionate, a hothead. His second-in0command was... a theoretician, brilliant, but unemotional and cold...we are useful to the Saecular power. Our gifts are to be celebrated. But we are blinded, or crippled by the very qualities that make us useful."

[In #3, also from pop culture]..he has turned green from working with chemicals, and he has a tentacle sprouting from the back of his skull. Always wears a white laboratory smock. Criminally insane. Always has a scheme to take over the world." [and an assistant named Pinky?]

[#4] :"eccentric, loveable, disheveled theoritician, absent-minded, means well"

[#5} "high-string, nervous, meddling know-it-alls who simply don't understand the realities, lacking physical courage...."

[#6] Guardians of ancient mystical secrets of the universe...." [I think that's an Idealist stereotype, really]

[#7} fiendishly gifted at twisting words and confusing people, or what is worse, influencing them in ways so subtle they don't even know it's happening..."

[#8} ---"bring enlightenment into the world and usher in a new age...."

That sounds like a good list to start with. Anyone recognize any of them? Or think some of them properly belong to another temperament?

[mkb32]

This is good grey badger.

I can identify having experienced #1, #6 & #7 (as in my being accused of being as such, unfortunately I have minimal personal experience with Rational adults)
That does not mean that I view any of these 3 as more Idealist misconceptions than Rational misconceptions.

I'm still trying to guess where your character examples come from.
#1 is on the tip of my tongue ---> it's gonna' bug me for a minute until I think of it.

I have experienced fellow students describing Rational professors as "cold", "uncaring", "asexual".
Being the expressive Diplomat that I am, you can be sure that I was convincing in my arguments disputing such expressed opinions. I was proud that I actually appeared calm at the time, because that was NOT how I felt on the inside. It was quite an effort on my part to NOT do a Rumpelstiltskin dance during that particular "sharing of perceptions".

[Goodrum]

#2 is Startrek

#1 is Anathem?

Anathem is set on the planet Arbre. Thousands of years prior to the events in the novel, society was on the verge of collapse. Intellectuals entered concents, much like monastic communities but without the religious elements. Here, the avout—a term for intellectuals, fraa for monk and suur for nun—are given limited access to tools and technology and are watched over by officials answering to the outside world (known as the Sæcular Power). The concents are therefore slow to change, unlike the rest of Arbre, which goes through many cycles of booms and busts.

Great stuff!!!!!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem

[Goodrum]

I'm going to let novelist Neal Stephenson answer this one, since he did so so delightfully.

[#1] Depicts us as clowns with a sinister aspect. At the beginning we are shown, say, prancing around with butterfly nets or looking at shapes in the clouds... but ina second phase a dark side is shown - an impressionable youngster is seduced, a responsible mother lured into insanity, a political leader led into decisions that are pure folly...it comes from a satirical play [written in classical antiquity]."

[#2 comes from] ... an adventure drama about a military spaceship sent to a remote part of the galaxy... The captain of the ship was passionate, a hothead. His second-in0command was... a theoretician, brilliant, but unemotional and cold...we are useful to the Saecular power. Our gifts are to be celebrated. But we are blinded, or crippled by the very qualities that make us useful."

[In #3, also from pop culture]..he has turned green from working with chemicals, and he has a tentacle sprouting from the back of his skull. Always wears a white laboratory smock. Criminally insane. Always has a scheme to take over the world." [and an assistant named Pinky?]

[#4] :"eccentric, loveable, disheveled theoritician, absent-minded, means well"

[#5} "high-string, nervous, meddling know-it-alls who simply don't understand the realities, lacking physical courage...."Fraas?

[#6] Guardians of ancient mystical secrets of the universe...." [I think that's an Idealist stereotype, really]

[#7} fiendishly gifted at twisting words and confusing people, or what is worse, influencing them in ways so subtle they don't even know it's happening..."

[#8} ---"bring enlightenment into the world and usher in a new age...."

That sounds like a good list to start with. Anyone recognize any of them? Or think some of them properly belong to another temperament?

[Goodrum]

I'm trying to put in my answers but the page keeps running away???? weird stuff happening here

oh no it isn't star trek it is all Anathem, I see what you have done..that is really clever what he has pieced together, it's like the Greek mythology sagas sort of..

[The Grey Badger]

This is good grey badger.

I can identify having experienced #1, #6 & #7 (as in my being accused of being as such, unfortunately I have minimal personal experience with Rational adults)
That does not mean that I view any of these 3 as more Idealist misconceptions than Rational misconceptions.

I'm still trying to guess where your character examples come from.
#1 is on the tip of my tongue ---> it's gonna' bug me for a minute until I think of it.

I have experienced fellow students describing Rational professors as "cold", "uncaring", "asexual".
Being the expressive Diplomat that I am, you can be sure that I was convincing in my arguments disputing such expressed opinions. I was proud that I actually appeared calm at the time, because that was NOT how I felt on the inside. It was quite an effort on my part to NOT do a Rumpelstiltskin dance during that particular "sharing of perceptions".

Consider a philosopher on trial for his life in the ancient world, and this playwright has written a play showing him as a daydreaming cloud-weaver with a sinister side, to wit, leading the youth of the city-state astray from the old virtues.

[The Grey Badger]

I'm trying to put in my answers but the page keeps running away???? weird stuff happening here

oh no it isn't star trek it is all Anathem, I see what you have done..that is really clever what he has pieced together, it's like the Greek mythology sagas sort of..

But #2 is from their equivalent of Star Trek.

[mkb32]

#1 = "Socrates" written by Voltaire

am i right? did i get it? whats my grade? can i get extra credit for that?
if i didn't get it right, don't give me the answer yet.

[The Grey Badger]

#1 = "Socrates" written by Voltaire

am i right? did i get it? whats my grade? can i get extra credit for that?
if i didn't get it right, don't give me the answer yet.

Aristophanes, The Clouds