http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005 by the authors Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:21:43 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/12/22/125307.php#comment-294382 I think one of the problems with modern conversation is that so many people see rebuttal as the highest form of conversation, when actually it is just showing off and even insulting. Also, people seem to have basic ideas that come not from thinking and pondering but are adaptions of others ideas. Most of us don't really sit down and ponder an issue and figure out an articulate stand. My parents were taciturn and didn't converse. And I was the same until I discovered girls, especially at college, and plunged into orgies of mutual self-confession and intellectual exploration. But the strains of marriage seem to drive people into secretiveness as The Wed Combatants jockey for advantage and ideas become meat for refutation and condescension. Often the easiest person to converse with is an utter stranger. As I recall, Freud wrote about this phenomena "strangers on a train", and, of course, Hitchcock made a fine movie about how this can go wrong. But it seems that since one never expects to see the stranger again it is non-dangerous to be open and converse freely, as one might with oneself. The internet is the modern version of conversation, with blogs, forums,BBSs, etc. And it has the advantage of allowing one to finish a thought without interruption. Then, as a reader one has the option of simply skipping over posts that are tedious or boring. How nice. 294382@blogcritics.org Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:21:43 EST