Re: Re: Re: What REALLY happened in Boston


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Rick Denney on January 29, 2003 at 23:31:51:

In Reply to: Re: Re: What REALLY happened in Boston posted by Mary Ann on January 29, 2003 at 15:23:48:

I think of Tubenet not like bathroom-wall scribbling but like conversation at a cocktail party. I might have friends, but I will also inevitably spend part of the evening talking to boorish strangers. Someone's conversational opening gambit may get ridiculed, and the little islands of conversation sometimes turn ugly, requiring those with discretion to escape before losing their commitment to civility. One does not have to be aware of what is on all those islands, but others might moved from group to group, interacting for a while before moving on. There is even the occasional yelling from the neighbor to pipe down. Those who remain sober try hard not to embarass the owner of the house.

Cocktail party conversations can be fun, and they can even be educational and interesting. Of course, they are often annoying, boring, and ready to test one's tolerance of stupidity.

To get the nuggets, one has to stand in the creek and pan a lot of empty sand.

But realizing that all group conversations have such dynamics is quite different from tolerating destructive gossip. Gossip hurts people, and not just their feelings, because it is so often untrue. Speculation and gossip aren't the same thing. Speculation sounds like this, "I guess that this is a possibility given these facts." Gossip sounds more like "I heard this from a friend of a friend who is in the know..." The difference is easy to see. Those who lack discernment may get sucked into the false authoritativeness of gossip.

Rick "who thinks nobody has the right to be uncivil, and who thinks gossip is a sin" Denney


Follow Ups: