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Originally Posted by d-ray657
Time for some dime store philosophy. (A first aside - isn't the term "dime store" obsolete now, anyway?)
We have quite the free-for-all here, and that's what political discussion is. Politics is one area where passions run high. Pretty soon, one person or another will respond to one position or another with an insult. (And this occurs from participants on the left and the right.) Well, being the humans we are, we respond in kind. Quite often the dispute escalates to the point where the original issue becomes secondary to the battle of wills.
This IMHO is why the proliferation of firearms is problematic, to put it lightly. Here, we only have battle of words. I'll throw a few nasty bits into cyberspace, and you'll respond in kind. But, outside of the virtual battle we have going on here, more and more people are packing. When slight or perceived slight begets insult, begets further insult, begets shouting, begets blows - escalation of a dispute leads to violence, and if those engaged in the violent dispute are armed, well it can become deadly.
What's the answer? I don't know. Hope we continue to evolve as a species, I suppose. I just hope we survive long enough to continue the process.
Regards,
D-Ray
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Can rational people act irrationally? I know that collective action by groups of people can surely result in irrationality despite that all individuals are acting rationally. Traffic neck-stretching is the classic example. The economist, Thomas Schelling, discusses this in his academic papers. Interesting point on the inevitability of escalation, but the dynamics are different in real world meetings. For one, the people that tend to participate in political forums are usually there to find opposition IMHO. Personally, I enjoy reading opposing viewpoints and seeing the different sides to issues. Sadly, I'm beginning to think the proportion of rational people in the so-called real world declines with every passing year, but then, perhaps that is nature of successful societies—a continued cycle of rise and decay.