No More Conversations
Published November 01, 2007
It wouldn't be so bad if most of these conversations were carried out by intelligent people who have a lot on the ball and could probably offer intelligent perspectives on most of today's issues if they cared to. What's truly unfortunate is that far too many people have begun to believe that to show you're smart or even informed is a bad thing.
It used to be only women felt like they had to dumb themselves down in order not to scare the men in their lives. While some men have gotten over that particular fear, society itself seems to have become nervous about people with intelligence. Being smart has never made anyone very popular, but it never used to make you quite the object of scorn and ridicule that you are now a days. Being smart has almost been made out as something abnormal and dangerous. The bad guys in movies are always evil geniuses who end up being "outsmarted" by the simple, but right thinking, good guy.
With everything being played to the lowest common denominator, from popular culture to political policy, showing yourself to have a brain has become even less desirable. Understandably people don't want to make public displays of intelligence among their peer groups when there is the very real possibility of being ostracized.
I find it ironic that in these days of high tech communication, where we can transmit messages instantaneously across thousands of miles, that something as simple as talking to the person beside you has become increasingly difficult. Maybe it's because we don't have as much human contact as we once did, or maybe it's because we have so many more things to pass the time that we simply don't bother to develop the skills that allow us to communicate verbally, or practice them enough so they are refined for use.
Whatever the reason, it's becoming harder and harder to find people who you can talk with. Conversations have become a thing of the past with people either using them as excuses for monologues or as vehicles to exchange inanities.
Richard Marcus is a long-haired Canadian iconoclast who writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees it at Leap In The Dark and Epic India Magazine.
- No More Conversations
- Published: November 01, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Society, Culture: Family and Relationships, Culture: Education
- Writer: Richard Marcus
- Richard Marcus's BC Writer page
- Richard Marcus's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Kevin, you are clearly exactly the kind of person Richard is talking about. You were so keen to get your own 2 cents in that you missed his points entirely.
The only irony here is that an article about the failure of communication has drawn a response that so richly proves the point...
Christopher -
No, I was clearly confused as to which of the two individuals he was professing to be. He seems to be saying we've lost the art of simple conversation, yet asks how many of us have been irked by someone trying to engage us in conversation. Isn't it just as simple to tell the person 'pushing themselves upon us' that we're taking a little much needed quiet time to ourselves?
Either he wants a simple dialog with someone or he doesn't, and being able to communicate well is just that. My question still stands - to Richard, who is the only one who knows what he meant.
He wasn't professing to be either of them; my perception is that he was addressing two different situations and you have mixed them up together, hence the irony. Your question is too tired to stand...
[and you have mixed them up together, hence the irony]
As opposed to 'mixing them up apart?' :-)
If you're writing something, particularly one that verges on remorse for something lost, it's helpful for the reader to know exactly what it is you're remorseful for losing. It's rare that a person isn't writing from one perspective or another - unless you're devoid of opinion and we both know Richard is not that.
Hence my very legitimate question.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/70471)
Richard, you said - "Don't you just hate people who force themselves upon you when you want to be left alone? You're sitting somewhere reading a book or just taking some quiet time, and they come tromping up and start yakking away at you without even asking if you want company. They assume, because you are sitting by yourself, you need to be rescued from the misery of sitting alone."
Then you say -
"I find it ironic that in these days of high tech communication, where we can transmit messages instantaneously across thousands of miles, that something as simple as talking to the person beside you has become increasingly difficult."
So, which of these two people are you? The one who doesn't want anyone forcing themselves on you, or the one who's simply trying to make conversation with another living human being in this tech age?
You do see the irony and the hypocrisy in your own post, I presume?