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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (adjective)
[in-TRAK-tah-bahl] 
1. not easily managed or directed; stubborn; obstinate: "Ken's intractable disposition made him a natural entrepreneur."
2. not easily shaped or manipulated; 'intractable metal'
3. not easily cured or alleviated; 'intractable pain'
noun forms: intractability, intractableness
adverb form: intractably
Origin:
Approximately 1500; borrowed from Latin, 'intractabilis' ('in-': not + 'tractabilis': tractable, from 'tractare': to manage). In action:
"The fundamentalist is intractable. Can you convince her to compromise in any of the tenets she holds sacred? You cannot. Even in the most benign case, she will see you as a contaminant. Your values and your ideas are not worthy of her consideration because they are wrong. The fundamentalist does not need to understand you and has no desire to try: You are of your father, the devil, the deceiver, the one who is the enemy of her soul. You are not redeemable as far as the fundamentalist is concerned. Your fate is sealed. You, in fact, are dead already.
That is why it's not such a leap for these fundamentalist extremists from another part of the world to see others as nonentities. As far as they are concerned, those outside the true faith might as well be dead. Unbelievers have missed out on the only real thing on planet Earth, the only opportunity for redemption and a ticket to paradise. Through their own choice and because of their own rebellion, they have sealed their fate. Even a loving God must allow humans to exercise free will and take the path they choose."
Carolyn S. Briggs. "Seeing the light," [A former Christian fundamentalist recalls a life of ferocious, intractable faith -- and the moments it began to crumble.] Salon.com (December 21, 2001).
"So what do you do if you have nightmares about werewolves, humans supposedly turned into savage beasts? Bring one down with a bullet made of silver and rest easy. (Doesn't work on vampires; you need mirrors, crosses, stakes and crossroads for them.) The supernatural essence of the legends led to the current pejorative meaning of silver bullet: 'a surefire, simple, instant solution to a seemingly intractable problem.'"
William Safire. "A little bit about that silver bullet..." Houston Chronicle (April 24, 2004).
"Envy is as persistent as memory, as intractable as a head cold." Harry Stein. "Thy Neighbor's Life," Esquire (July 1980).
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