Blogtrek

When it isn't, it is

Frequently, when a person makes a negative statement, the corresponding positive statement is the one that is true. For example, when Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook.", that says that he was a crook. When an email message comes that says "This is not spam.", that means that it is spam. For if an email message is legitimate, then it does not need to say that it is. When I email someone in one of my clubs about when the next meeting is, I don't say that it is not spam; I just simply state when the next meeting is, and the recipient will know from what I say that it isn't spam. So if a message has to say that it is not spam, that means that it is not legitimate, for it has to state that it is. Therefore, it is spam.

The latest example is Mariah Carey saying "I'm not wacko." Who would say this if they felt that they were relating satisfactorily to other people? I conclude from this that she is wacko. But then she goes on to say, "I mean, we're all a little wacko sometimes, and if we think we're not, maybe we are more than we know." Now this I agree with. We can never know ourselves completely because that would cause an infinite regress of brain tissue. But she did contradict herself.