I was thinking about this more tonight, and wanted to give a thoughtful response.
You are absolutely right to accuse me of being evasive, because like I see things as being relative and subjective. Even what we consider facts I would consider relative and dependent upon perspective.
I was thinking about this book I read years ago on Buddhism and it gave a parable about 4 blind men being brought up to an elephant. One man touches the trunk, another man touches a leg, another the side of the torso, and the final man touches the tail. They are all asked to describe the nature of the animal they observing through their touch, and they all give wildly different, yet simultaneously true accounts.
Maybe I value empathy too much, and you could probably realize the obvious problem that comes from this; it can be immobilizing.
I remember once a few years ago during my first year in grad school I had a real son of a bitch of a professor spring quarter. He was genuinely a very angry person and would have outbursts in class. The class largely despised him, and his attitude was so bad I started having panic attacks in class.
But despite that, I had the hardest time evaluating him when the quarter was over. I could have written some really horrible reviews that I knew would be seen by the associate dean, but I started to think that some of the stuff he was upset about actually had some merit. And, my anxiety and panic attacks associate with this class may not have been indicative with his teaching style, but more more own personal struggles, and in the end I just got stuck and didn't know what to put down. I think in the end, I didn't end up submitting an evaluation for him, because I didn't know what to say.
