Saturday, February 18, 2012

Why Do People Disagree?

Although, of course, I've disagreed with other people a LOT in my life, and stood up for myself, and whatnot, I also, lately, have almost no idea why people disagree.  The only conclusion I can come to is that they actually think their opinions matter.  And  here I'm talking about social policy, mostly, or about something wider than one's relationship with one other person, in which case opinions do matter because they reflect and affect the relationship.

Concerning larger political issues though, I have to assume that most of us argue just to show off.  Simply to be better than the other person, and not, at all, for the substance of the material.  Because if our opinions don't matter, how will convincing someone at a bar or dinner or social gathering of any sort actually impact anything?  It won't.  And the likelihood of convincing someone is astonishingly low.  So low that I wonder why it is we get so worked up in the first place.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What prompted you to write this? Do drunk people argue a lot? Is that common? I ask because I recently reconnected with an old friend who is a functioning alcoholic. I found him to be very argumentative in matters of taste. (We were talking about music and television.) I tried to explain to him that he was discussing matters that were not objective but subjective. God didn't hand down rules for us to determine what Creedence album is better than the other. But he was very argumentative about things about what was "better". I found it to be weird and wondered if it was because he had been drinking so much. Thanks - good writing here on the blog. All the best to to you.

Unknown said...

Im on day 3, its 7am... ..couldn't sleep at all last night, terrible headach, angry, sweaty, exhausted, uhhhhhhh....

Saint 777 said...

do you think getting drunk only on the weekends I mean Friday Saturday and Sunday means your an alcoholic