To Some, An Alien Concept, Logic Is.

Before someone jumps down my throat about mixing up two polar opposite fandoms, I KNOW I mixed up/intertwined my pop culture references.... 

But, just look at me as a neutral party...as a " Switzerland" of your war of fandoms, ok?

(Yep, those Trekkies/Trekkers and Star Wars aficionados get pretty touchy over such things)

We'll let Yoda and Spock go into the sound proof booth and battle it out....maybe a cage match or something. Someone tell them to just dress casual...really don't want to ever see either one in wrestling tights....I have never wanted to know what Yoda's junk, NOR Spock's junk looked like, especially when outlined in neon green Spandex. 

 NO, I am NOT at all curious. I am not a die hard Star Wars fan, nor a Trekkie or Trekker.   It seems like it would be a mind scarring thing....ewwww...I  would need a Jedi mind trick to convince me I had never seen it/that/them (or whatever the term I need to use...), just to maintain a sense of sanity.

Besides, I know full well there will be people recording it all on their iPhones...and, I assure you, NO ONE wants to see either guy's "stuff" on YouTube...

 Well, except maybe some subcultures of both of those fandoms.......

And, frankly, I really don't want to delve into that any further...I would like to keep my head from imploding, thank-you-very-much. 

It could be universe destroying....really.

So, now that those two are out of the room, as well as their athletic supporters....

OK, OK, the groans were a little loud with that one.  I agree,  my little pop culture mash with "professional wrestling" type references does tend to stink....

So, let's get back to LOGIC.

The reason "LOGIC" has come up in my mind is that it links in with "common sense".

That in itself seems to be a rare commodity. If I could find a warehouse of it, I am sure I could sell it all for a pretty penny...

But, then again, maybe it would be the worst purchase of my life....being that so many people seem to not realize that they even lack common sense in the first place.

Do you need common sense in order to realize you have none?

Sort of a catch 22, I suppose.

Anyway, the issue arose in a couple Facebook groups I am in, both being linked together, one being a museum site, and the other being a Marketplace the group's Admin created for members to sell memorabilia that is of interest to those who are into the sort of thing that museum displays.

I normally use my shop sign as my personal icon on Facebook, so that people "connect" me with my store. I keeps them from scrambling to figure out who I am when I happen to message them from my main account instead of from my store page, and, if you know Facebook (as it is configured at the time of this blog posting), you can't contact people via your store page unless they contact you first.

I assume that measure is Facebook's way of preventing people creating pages and then spamming everyone and their dog....

Oh, and so that no one accused me of being exclusionary, I should also add:  "their cat, hamster, goldfish, python, and assorted other critters, alive dead, faux and imaginary."

Hopefully that covers it.

Wait, I forgot "of the ether."

Political correctness has run amok, eh?

So, back to LOGIC.

(I am sure if Spock was standing beside me he would 
have slapped me by now, with my digressions....and left an off-kilter "W" shaped imprint on the side of my head.)

Logic. I assume people use it, and you would think it is a synonym for "common sense,"

Is it, I wonder...?

**** disappearing into the ether of the internet for a few moments  ****

Ok, so synonyms or "logic" include the following: science of reasoning, philosophy, rational, sanity, sense, argumentation, coherence, connection, deduction, dialectic, induction, inference, linkage, ratiocination, relationship, syllogism, thesis, antithesis, synthesis, course of thought, good sense, sound judgement, syllogistics, train of thought.

*Taking A Breath*

So, that pretty much covers "common sense", too, does it not? "Science of reasoning" seems to hit the head of the common sense nail.

If someone posts/offers something for sale in a public forum that exists for exactly that purpose, would you question why they are selling it...

AND 
....then immediately  proceed to tell them how it would be better to donate the material to a museum so "the public can enjoy it"....?

AND

....if you are an artist, musician, writer, or otherwise artistically talented/trained and thus self-employed...heck, if you are self-employed at all, where your skill is an integral part of the way you make money in your business, would you not think about how you would feel being told something similar in the context of your field? 

For example, how would you feel as a musician if you were told that you should play your music for free all the time "for the public to enjoy...."  

Or, as a writer, how you should write an article for a magazine, website, etc "for exposure"....essentially for free, "for the public to enjoy"...and the entity to make money off of your work, while you make nada....

Anyways,  you get the idea.

That very question was posed to me by a "established author"...and I was taken aback. 

An artist of any sort are the types that are the last sort of individual who I thought would ever pose that question to me, as a dealer/picker whose talent is finding those very items, researching those items, recognizing that the items are of significance to someone. 

 Members of the general public who have not encountered such uneducated (and sometimes downright ignorant) attitudes on a monthly, sometimes weekly basis I would understand, and deal with....

BUT, when you really should know better?

Use some common sense....walk a mile in the person's shoes before you pose the question....put yourself in their place, injecting a context that you are familiar with... 

And, if you are caught posing the question and realize your blunder too late to "delete" it....

 or make some sort of other recompense ...

don't act like the person you essentially insulted (inadvertently or not) is the one in the wrong. 

All that does is dig yourself into an even deeper hole.

In this case, that author is not going to be offered, nor access to, nor copies of, any artifacts they would be very interested in.

What this individual does not realize is that many of my peers, associates, clients (etc) will hear the story.

Many have even seen the thread in question..... 

And, they all encounter, have dealt with, and still deal with the same sort of ignorant attitude. 

Looks like there may be one name and number scratched off many dealers' & pickers' customer lists, judging from the lengthy discussion thread that resulted in one antiques/collectibles group's  thread. 

Plus, there will be even more copies of his books glutting the market and sitting on thrift shop shelves, donation bins, recycling bins, garage sale "free" boxes, boxes of books at auctions,  etc, etc,  once we all get weeding  out our reference libraries for obsolete, duplicate, and "suspect" sources of information.

....not that it will affect his "new" book sales. 

What dealer or picker pays retail prices for such things when they  don't/won't eventually have at least an equal resale value?

Pick safe!