MC Paul Barman SAITH: “If you think you think outside the box you’re trapped in one.”: A Rejoinder

Every once in a while I travel around the internet looking at various blogs, and other internet driven media.  Typically I have no reaction.

Upon reading this piece, I began to think about writing and other things.  The following is what occurred (with the headings and all):

Prologue

While it is true that even the worst argumentation can contain truisms, (and that lots of folks these days take it upon themselves to ignore the whole of the intellectual tradition of Western Culture and still make claims about it), you must take a moment to think about the difference from opinion and argumentation.

We are all guilty of making opinionated rants about myriad things, car parts, varieties of cheese, musical acts, whether Frank Zappa was a conservative or not,  the literary canon, fair trade chocolate, dog breeds, seat up or seat down, &c.   Yet, sometimes our ranting on other issues that have more weight in the hierarchy of importance may contain a fair amount of thinking that does not enter into the category of critical.

The lack of critical thinking is just another scourge of the age in which we live. And although we pride ourselves on being educated, shall we be so prideful to really make that generalization?

There is this mindset afoot of the over-generalization mixed with the denial of certain tangibles and observations about a thing, that when said thing is criticized in a foul manner, said criticism must be placed into the category of pure opinion.

Hubris

Sometimes a writer’s voice reeks with hubris, as if they alone have the answer to all of life’s most difficult questions. While saying life’s most difficult questions is clichéd, let this be a lesson to show your blogger’s lowliness and inability to be vaguely original.  Other instances of this hubris arise when a writer suggests that their writing will cause some big-Hollywood impact on their reader, I’d hate to tell you that.

When hubris is matched with incomplete thinking, something remarkable occurs.  You may find yourself reacting to a piece of writing like you have never reacted before.  You may think to yourself, “Am I reading a satire?” “Am I being fooled?” “Do they really mean THIS?”

When Writing is Underdeveloped

When writing is underdeveloped it appears to be rough, incomplete, not thought through enough. When writing about things that are of consequence is underdeveloped, rough, incomplete, not thought through enough, something interesting occurs.  Sometimes underdeveloped writing can be contradictory, or it may use terms that may be the trappings of things that the writing wants to deny.

When Writing is Developed

When writing is developed, even if you disagree about the content, it can be a beautiful thing.

Conflict

Me versus  You.  Paper versus Plastic. Boxers versus Briefs. Tipper Gore versus the Music Industry.  For some reason or another we have become the society of the either/or bizarre binary style of argument. We don’t need no stinkin’ both/and over hea’!

Miscellany:

Science Versus Religion

There really is no conflict here on a fundamental level. The conflict may arise with scientific ethics, but there really is no conflict with science in general terms (at least where Catholic Christianity is concerned).  Also,  you’d be surprised to research the important contributions to science from Medieval Islam. But you know the religious are just SO anti- science.

Religion and Lifestyle

Most garden-variety religions are quite focused on how human lives should be lead on earth, not just the things that happen after death.  You’d be better off by suggesting that there are some religious sects that are too preoccupied on eschatological affairs that they do not pay ample attention to the here and now. But, you will also see that that is not such a powerful generalization that tackles the whole of religion, and therefore it isn’t a good rhetorical option.

The Great Chain of Being

When you find yourself thinking that your dog is somehow more ontologically important than you are, isn’t that detrimental to the institution of man?

Progress is a Nebulous Word

Q.E.D.