Useless Debate

As I've gotten into my late 20s, I've begun to place just a bit more importance on my time, energy and attention. That's not to say that I don't fritter it away, but I avoid it to the extent that my discipline allows. One of the areas where I make this effort is in debates and arguments. They had better really matter, and not only matter but be something other than futile, if I'm going to expend myself in their service. Rarely is this the case.

An easy category to dispense with is that which has seemingly been ginned up by a corporation to sell more units. There are any number of them out there, and those so engaged are seemingly under the impression that they are striving to enhance their knowledge and not the bottom line of a multinational conglomerate which sees them as ants with income if it sees them at all. I, for one, intend on going to my grave having consciously attempted to work for the betterment of myself and those I care about, not business enterprises I had no real stake in.

I say that such arguments are concocted by unscrupulous business concerns, but am not so naive as to discount the alternative. Even if a real person started up the debate on how best to enjoy a chocolate and cream cookie, it only goes to show what mindless, consuming stooges we have become. Frankly, I hold out more hope for us than to think these debates didn't come out of a marketing office. Really, though, either possibility sinks my heart into desperation. Allow me to move on rather than brood on that one- it strikes me rather harder than I imagined.

Another type which I'm eminently capable of walking away from is that which might possibly end in a consensus, but to no useful end. It includes the classic barroom barn burner of whether various competitions are or are not a sport. I suppose the distinction between this and the above is subtle, but is clear enough to me. The corporation-spawned argument at least serves the corporation in a quantifiable way. Who is served by a prolonged back-and-forth on the subject of darts? The attention it draws to the sport is outweighed by the plain implication that it's a marginal feat of athletics at best and is barely respectable if at all.

The big waste of time is the political debate. It's the only truly necessary one, but is simply not worth the attempt so long as our capacity to speak and desire to win so badly outstrip our abilities to listen or be persuaded. Human nature renders any attempt at productive debate to be an endeavor permanently in vain. The preponderance of political discussions are held by those between whom there is no disagreement.   It's just a big back-patting agree-fest which serves no more purpose than to validate, ingender good feeling and leave participants as remote as ever from their opposite numbers.

The rare cross-divide donnybrook is no better. One sees the two pugilists each devoting themselves entirely to launching vicious haymakers for the sake of their friends in attendance. The only indication that either is aware of his opponent's exertions comes in the form of frustration that they are punching when he is trying to punch. I hate to put either form of political discourse above the other, but at least the first I mentioned feels good. The other is an unpleasant prize fight in which no one goes down or so much as confesses to a bruise.

I find myself trying harder and harder to summon the restraint necessary to opt out of all of them. Life, friends and loved ones all come in such deplorably short supply that it seems shameful to waste any of them trying to settle the unsettle-able.