Sunday, February 20, 2005
The Death of Conversation
The Observer has a short piece on the death of conversation in Britain--and its replacement by 'banal banter'.
I've been thinking about this for a long time while I've been a student at the University of Chicago. Certain topics like politics and to a lesser extent religion are impossible to discuss with certain people without them getting upset or taking a negative opition away from the encounter about you. And that's just silly. Conversation and debate are not personal attacks and offenses, they're what you do when you talk. It drives me insane that people think disagreement means you don't like them.
But then, I guess people don't have any sound ideas about conversation, since the article says that 2/3rds of those surveyed think the phone is the best way to have intelligent conversation...
Personally, most of the people that I'm thinking of when writing this, those that can't have a debate without getting pissed at you, seem to be in line with this observation from The Observer piece:
And as an aside, there is a very interesting quote by a British author in there--one that is either by an idiot or sarcastically about idiots. I'm not sure which, but I'm inclined to think the former:
I've been thinking about this for a long time while I've been a student at the University of Chicago. Certain topics like politics and to a lesser extent religion are impossible to discuss with certain people without them getting upset or taking a negative opition away from the encounter about you. And that's just silly. Conversation and debate are not personal attacks and offenses, they're what you do when you talk. It drives me insane that people think disagreement means you don't like them.
But then, I guess people don't have any sound ideas about conversation, since the article says that 2/3rds of those surveyed think the phone is the best way to have intelligent conversation...
Personally, most of the people that I'm thinking of when writing this, those that can't have a debate without getting pissed at you, seem to be in line with this observation from The Observer piece:
Carter believes that considered opinions are the first casualty of an excess of small talk. 'Too much chatter means we keep our real thoughts to ourselves,' he said. 'We risk becoming rigid and thoughtless in our opinions,' he added.
And as an aside, there is a very interesting quote by a British author in there--one that is either by an idiot or sarcastically about idiots. I'm not sure which, but I'm inclined to think the former:
Lemn Sissay, named as one of the 50 key black British writers, fetes small talk: 'Talking about traffic and patio doors is the Western Buddhist mantra,' he said. It's a way we can find inner peace in today's society. Small talk can give away so much more about people, and be much more fascinating than big talk. I truly respect those who can sit around and discuss patio doors for half an hour and get something out of it.'>
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