WHEN YOU KNOW YOU’RE WRONG- CRAP PART II

How many of us argue for the sake of arguing? I do it a lot. I don’t know. I just like the concept of knowing more than there is to know. Does that make sense? It’s not like I have fun annoying other people. Although maybe I do. We all do, right? I was having a chat with a friend the other day and he sort of mentioned that he hates arguing with people who think they’re right and aren’t willing to listen to a different viewpoint whatsoever. He feels, apparently, that if you know you’re right, you’ve got to have the facts to back up the fact that you know you’re right. Facts. Plural. Arguing over something when you’ve only one single solitary piece to stand up for you doesn’t count. Cut the crap. Move on. Tell me. Convince me that you’re right. And then maybe I’ll believe you. Or maybe I’ll come up with a stronger argument to support my case. At the very least, I’ll annoy you merely by disagreeing with the fact that you’re right.

Wow. That was a lot of you’re right. Actually, the concept of having a conversation Is essentially sharing knowledge. We all know that. In our subconscious. If I meet someone, I ask them how they are that day. They’re either well, or they’re fine, or they’re depressed or they’re something or the other. But you get the point. I got some information out of it. Meaningless though it may be. But when a conversation moves on from the interesting boredom of our daily lives, to perhaps world affairs, or politics, or why so and so’s cancer is progressing too fast, then something comes up in us. It’s a sort of competition. It’s a bit like, I want to tell you that I’ve got more knowledge than you do about it. SO I do my best to steer the conversation to my viewpoint, and you try to steer it to yours. Unless, of course, we both agree on something. With me, that’s a bit rare. I love to disagree, just to get an expanded version of a different viewpoint. And then, to annoy you, I’ll tell you that we’re going to have to settle for agreeing to disagree. And then I’ll walk off.

Ten minutes later, I’ll be sitting at a bus stop. Or perhaps a bench somewhere in a public place, and come across someone else. I’ll strike up a conversation. Meaningless talk. And then I’ll use your viewpoint as my own. IF I don’t have a very deep faith in my own viewpoint of course. And they, having to disagree with me, will give me an expanded version of my own view-point. Makes sense so far? So basically, I’ll end up knowing a lot more than I did about something in two hours. From two strangers.

You get it. THIS is why I argue with people I don’t know. I learn. A lot. And they say education is what you get in institutions. OH BOY!