I'm pretty argumentative. I used to excuse it by saying well, it's because I care. It's because I think the person matters, and because I think their opinion matters. So when they are wrong, or at least - when we disagree, if I can see the points of disagreement clearly enough to articulate why they are wrong, then that's an act of generosity on my part! Because I'd be doing them a disservice otherwise, letting them walk away and walk around with that crazy wrong opinion, when I had it in my considerable power to help them out a bit with a better one.
Sounds straightforward right? Well sit down if you're standing. Because here comes a shocker.
You might have a hard time believing this, but it turns out that all the above might be kind of a crock of shit. Don't get me wrong: for most people I might share an argument with, all of the above is true enough - true as gold. But the fact is, the rock-bottom foundational truth of it is, it's not from any kind of virtuous motive before-the-fact. It's more of a sort of a reason after-the-fact. The fact itself is, I argue because I'm just pretty damn argumentative. When I see something that strikes me not-right, I just gots to jump right in and have a go at setting it straight. At its heart, it's pretty much just a bad habit. A knee-jerk urge. I may think I excel at Reason, but my reasons for diving in and trying to reason it out with someone are essentially not reasonable ones. Not at heart - not at bottom.
Luckily, I manage to turn it into a virtue, by how I pull it off so sweet.
Sounds straightforward right? Well sit down if you're standing. Because here comes a shocker.
You might have a hard time believing this, but it turns out that all the above might be kind of a crock of shit. Don't get me wrong: for most people I might share an argument with, all of the above is true enough - true as gold. But the fact is, the rock-bottom foundational truth of it is, it's not from any kind of virtuous motive before-the-fact. It's more of a sort of a reason after-the-fact. The fact itself is, I argue because I'm just pretty damn argumentative. When I see something that strikes me not-right, I just gots to jump right in and have a go at setting it straight. At its heart, it's pretty much just a bad habit. A knee-jerk urge. I may think I excel at Reason, but my reasons for diving in and trying to reason it out with someone are essentially not reasonable ones. Not at heart - not at bottom.
Luckily, I manage to turn it into a virtue, by how I pull it off so sweet.
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I think I'm going to make that a regular feature. Stick a John Cusack movie quote in any post where the detour I have to take to fit it in can be feasibly justified.
Here, it's worth the narrative sacrifice, but just barely. It kinda derails the flow a bit. I admit it.
Maybe I should take it out.
I'm taking it out.