To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
 
I argued with an idiot today. I swear to myself every day to not entangle myself in arguments with random strangers online but in spite of my best intentions to steer clear I seem to get caught up in it. Who qualifies as an idiot? I think 1. Someone who attacks the arguer instead of their argument. 2. Someone who is not interested in pursuing the merits of an argument or opposing the merits with a counter-argument of their own but simply wants to disparage the argument 3. Someone whose basic assumptions are so weak or flawed that though they think they have put up an argument, what they have put up could be gobbledygook for all the sense it makes in relation to the argument 4. Someone who is so full of themselves that they see everything from their own point of view instead of looking at things from the opposite perspective offered to them 5. Someone who speaks a different language almost so that no matter what you say, they say something that cannot be a logical response to what you said at least in the same language. 6. Someone who automatically assumes something is incorrect because it doesn’t square with their views instead of trying to look for nuance or understand the details. There are many other items that could go on this list overlapping each other but you get the drift…

I am coming to the conclusion that it may be best to not offer my views/opinions/thoughts at all where there is no guarantee what sort of person may start engaging with me. It’s not that I can’t defend my stance, but is it worth my time or energy or effort or patience or emotions? At one time in my life I would have thought it was worth it because I could learn something in the process but now… these resources seem finite and precious. I believe learning can happen in much more ideal conditions, which don’t require, as they say, wrestling in the mud with a pig. And the pig enjoys it…

posted by Sylvia D'souza at 1:31 am 0 comments
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