Courageous
Wanderer
LOL. Mr. S. is doing okay. He's working on his electronic communication skills. Just needs a bit of polishing, that's all. Well, perhaps a little dose of empathy, too, but that will come. Everyone needs to lighten up.
I'm going to repost to pull the trick of a tired old blowhard, and retell one of my own stories. Repost time:
Since politeness...
There's an old saying that I like:
"Politeness is the invention of an armed society."
In today's world, if someone sends some malicious words in your direction, if you kick their ass, somehow you are supposed to be the problem. I often think think we have swung too far this way. There used to be another saying:
"Them's fightin' words."
I think there was a lot of wisdom in that saying.
In one of these eras, everyone was meticulously referred to as "sir," or "master". In another era, it was simply "mister".
In the current era, we seem to free to call anyone anything we like. "Ass," "bitch", "cocksucker," are all apparently part of our protected free speech rights, but nowhere do we seem to feel obligated to call any one, "mister," miz," or even so much as use their last name.
See a correlation?
I do.
The day after 9/11, a certain well-known internet troll, real name Gordon Roy Parker, pseudonym "Ray Gordon," publically opined that everyone who died there was just some pathetic low life who "deserved" what they got. He had a thing against high finance, or something. Free speech and all. Thing is, he lived in the area, and there were some people who had the ability to find this out.
They plastered his entire neighborhood with flyers, publically displaying his malicious words to several hundred of his neighbors. He got many death threats in reply, and his life was a living hell for quite some time thereafter.
He lived. He was lucky.
On a whole, I think justice was done.
Free speech. We think of it as a freedom. The wise amongst us, however, know quite well that all freedoms come with certain responsibilities. Mr. Parker liked to think he didn't have any of those. He was wrong about that, and learned that he was wrong about that--the very hard way.
This has little to do indeed with one Mr. Seanchen. He's an okay fellow, who definitely could learn to communicate better. He could also learn that not all people he communicates with are devoid of feelings; children, adults, people from all walks of life, we all feel pain and hurt. Gruffness is no excuse.
I'd hate to see Mr. Seanchen have to learn the hard way. While I don't forsee a "Ray Gordon" future for Mr. S., he might consider that some of the messages he posts here, would, for example, earn him a pointed talking to at work.
I find that to be a pretty good litmus test, actually. Would you talk to a coworker like that?
Perhaps we should all be answering this question. You see, even if a coworker is an ass, we don't get to talk to our coworker like some do to Mr. S.
C//
p.s. I agree with Mr. S. He is trying to be a better person. Since most people never even try, try giving him a bit of a break. Lighten up.
I'm going to repost to pull the trick of a tired old blowhard, and retell one of my own stories. Repost time:
Since politeness...
There's an old saying that I like:
"Politeness is the invention of an armed society."
In today's world, if someone sends some malicious words in your direction, if you kick their ass, somehow you are supposed to be the problem. I often think think we have swung too far this way. There used to be another saying:
"Them's fightin' words."
I think there was a lot of wisdom in that saying.
In one of these eras, everyone was meticulously referred to as "sir," or "master". In another era, it was simply "mister".
In the current era, we seem to free to call anyone anything we like. "Ass," "bitch", "cocksucker," are all apparently part of our protected free speech rights, but nowhere do we seem to feel obligated to call any one, "mister," miz," or even so much as use their last name.
See a correlation?
I do.
The day after 9/11, a certain well-known internet troll, real name Gordon Roy Parker, pseudonym "Ray Gordon," publically opined that everyone who died there was just some pathetic low life who "deserved" what they got. He had a thing against high finance, or something. Free speech and all. Thing is, he lived in the area, and there were some people who had the ability to find this out.
They plastered his entire neighborhood with flyers, publically displaying his malicious words to several hundred of his neighbors. He got many death threats in reply, and his life was a living hell for quite some time thereafter.
He lived. He was lucky.
On a whole, I think justice was done.
Free speech. We think of it as a freedom. The wise amongst us, however, know quite well that all freedoms come with certain responsibilities. Mr. Parker liked to think he didn't have any of those. He was wrong about that, and learned that he was wrong about that--the very hard way.
This has little to do indeed with one Mr. Seanchen. He's an okay fellow, who definitely could learn to communicate better. He could also learn that not all people he communicates with are devoid of feelings; children, adults, people from all walks of life, we all feel pain and hurt. Gruffness is no excuse.
I'd hate to see Mr. Seanchen have to learn the hard way. While I don't forsee a "Ray Gordon" future for Mr. S., he might consider that some of the messages he posts here, would, for example, earn him a pointed talking to at work.
I find that to be a pretty good litmus test, actually. Would you talk to a coworker like that?
Perhaps we should all be answering this question. You see, even if a coworker is an ass, we don't get to talk to our coworker like some do to Mr. S.
C//
p.s. I agree with Mr. S. He is trying to be a better person. Since most people never even try, try giving him a bit of a break. Lighten up.
