Words

Words. I have a love-hate relationship with words.

*Gasp* “And you call yourself a writer…”

As I’ve explained in previous musings, I use lots of words – when I’m writing. Not so much when I’m speaking and none when I’m working with my hands. I have rules for words but not all rules are my rules. Some are society’s rules.

A debate is words. Specifically, spoken words. Unscripted, spoken words. Otherwise, it would be a speech.

Unscripted spoken words are not always smoothly delivered. Think 911 recorded calls or asking that girl out on your first date. However stilted or clumsy, neither are these ineloquent utterances a measure of intelligence, but rather of discipline, training, and experience.

The disciplined mind often patiently pauses, erring on the side of forbearance and tolerance while searching for common language and grappling with understanding. To this end, the disciplined mind watches and listens, questions and clarifies, before drawing conclusions – all of which precedes any declaration of certainty. Personal opinion, poor manners, and unqualified statements have no place in debate or even discourse. Not my rules but long established guideposts to avoid unsightly displays.

One such unsightly display, “Boorish Trolling,” for example, is, by definition, “the act of public self-gratification through personal aggrandizement while simultaneously excluding, degrading, demeaning, abusing, beating, beating, beating down others, often accompanied by heightened or even escalating personal promotion.”

When such unadulterated “id” is thus encountered in debate, or any discourse really, the disciplined, well-mannered mind is cautioned to remain silent, avert one’s eyes, and waits out the entire unfortunate act. The inappropriate amusements of the entirely self-absorbed individual are not meant for the inclusion of facts, the communication of ideas, nor for the good of all, but for the fleeting satisfaction of one.

Why broadcast such behavior? Ah…something circular…