A "Q" Moment

Originally Posted Saturday, March 9, 2013

I was almost lured into a "Q" moment.  You know, the ones he writes about after he argues with people on Fauxbook.  It is so goddamned tempting to do it, but I have learned it never, ever pays.  No one ever gives up and says, "O.K.  You're right."  They usually won't even concede that you've made a good point.  It is fun for the people who agree with you, though.  "Yea, right on. . . go get 'em, tiger." 

And usually, in the end, I have to concede that there were faults in my thinking.  Not just mine, but in thinking in general . There are many ways to do it, this thinking, each with its own set of rules.  We like to pretend that there is one set of rules or "truths" that we must all play by, but that assumption is the first fallacy.  After 150 years of school, that is what I've learned.  That and that learning is good fun. 

Arguing is, too, except with other people.  With rare exception, they don't like it or they want to be right so badly that emotion creeps in.  I can argue with Q because we know that we are both dopey miscreants and so don't usually get mad about it.  Usually, it is just sport.  Most of the time.  But even we fall off that wagon on occasion, too. 

Knowing this and knowing where argument leads, I usually limit myself to outrageous or provocative or absurd comments meant to question without arguing, meant to inject some other way of thinking that is at least equally valid.  I just can't go along with anything, really, and I hate piety and righteousness and just about everything involved in ideologies and "just" causes.  That doesn't mean I won't join in a march or a boycott or picketing.  I just want to be on the side that has the best chance of getting the shit kicked out of it.  That's my side. 

I think, though, that yesterday's C.S. post might have irked my friend Ulf over at 591 Photography Blog.  I'm just guessing, and I am hypersensitive, but today when I read this, I almost wrote the following in the comments section:

I think we all need a day, but there are too many of us, so we get marginalized in a new way.  International Women's Day includes Nicki Manaj Madonna, Eva Braun, Julia Roberts, Cher and Chaz Bono (?). . . and my mother.  I think in logic it is called "categorical thinking."  

I wrote it, but I deleted it.  I have never met Ulf and so do not know how he takes things.  He has been overly kind to me and my photography, and I need friends.  But I think that he knows my way of thinking, too, so he can read it here and hopefully get a kick out of it.  I don't want to drag mud into somebody else's house.  

But I have an idea.  I want a day, too, and I don't seem to have one.  People tell me that every day is my day, and I know what they mean, but what they don't know is that I wasn't given the pass key to the club they think I'm part of.  So. . . I want an International Losers Day.  I just want to see how big the group thinks itself to be.  I may have more partners than I imagine.