There is a difference between Right Brain Scientist and Military Intelligence!

There is a difference between Right Brain Scientist and Military Intelligence!

I hope that I’m not cutting the oxygen supply to any (fish-) brain (left or right) when I bring up my hang up of Art’s use of the word oxymoron.

The use of oxymorons is a use of words diverging from its usual meaning. Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use as they introduce an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. Our language is full of oxymorons; we have many hundreds of them, and they often make the language colorful but biased. A few examples: Clever fool, common sense, diet ice cream, eternal life, free love, fuzzy logic, military intelligence, healthy competition, just war, mini jumbo, open secret, objective morality, poor intelligence, sure bet, white lie etc., etc..

A left-brain scientist who cannot objectively supply an untrammeled frame of reference that is to me a contradiction, or if you want an oxymoron. A right- brain scientist must also have a left brain, how could he otherwise have been a scientist? Objectively seen he is no oxymoron. He is a scientist in touch with reality with a frame of reference.

I always liked the use of oxymorons and for many years I played with them in a neurotic game, in which it was hard to catch me. I could slip around and distort the sentence a bit (or just enough) if I was under pressure. I became shockingly aware of this fact at a Primal Retreat, in the early 80ies, in Chantilly, France. A man from a different culture (Kuwait) suddenly during a meeting yelled at me: “Jan, stop your way of communicating with words of contradictory meaning; I never know if you are happy or sad, or if you mean this or that.” He had disclosed me, and I knew he was right. He put his finger on one of my neurotic defense mechanisms. 30 years later, I’m still good at verbal game playing, but I am at least aware there is anxiety and pain underneath.

Jan Johnsson