Juxtaposition.

[Bill Sikes]

Poor title, perhaps. Maybe another forum would be more appropriate. However:



You are visiting a large house where there's a genteel party. There are lots of

rooms there. The vast majority are complete strangers. People drift around,

talking to each other. You do not always know what they are saying to each

other. Sometimes they are out of sight.

There's a large room where many people congregate from time to time. In

this room, you can see everyone, and hear what they say.

When everyone is in that large room, Person A stands up, and says that another

person, un-named, in the room has done something that everyone would think

absolutely frightful, and is a complete rotter.

First, do you believe Person A, on their sole word?

Second, if you do believe Person A, how does this change your views on all the

other people at the party, who you previously thought were A-OK?



N.B. if you can be bothered to try and discuss this, PLEASE KEEP IT IN THE ABSTRACT, don't besmirch the purity of your replies with domestics or FG

relationships.

[DesignerGal]

I would probably think the person who announces this is a drama queen and exit said room to find another, more pleasant conversation. Why would you make a scene at a public party? I wouldnt. I dont know many people with manners who would.

[koan]

I had little flashes of playing one of those Mystery Murder games. Where you invite all your friends to a dinner party, they all dress up as characters and act out a predetermined mystery.



It brings out the wannabe detective in me. Though I might have trouble taking it seriously depending what was announced and how it was pronounced.

btw, love the "absolutely frightful" :yh_giggle

[koan]

I'll put this into another context that is completely separate from this forum...or any forum and one I've seen happen many times.

A person, egged on by coworkers, stands up at a place of work and says: The crew/group of employees is very unhappy with the conditions of our employment. About nine times out of ten, when the boss asks who else feels the same way, no one will back up their spokesperson.

The percentages are based on RL observations not online "personae".

[DesignerGal]

SnoozeControl;459147 wrote: Yeah, what you said. But I'd probably ask sotto voce what the guy's problem was and if he was drunk or something.


And if we could have what he's having? Maybe not, huh?:wah:

[koan]

If I really place myself in the OP scenario, mentally, then I sincerely believe my first reaction would be to nudge the bloke next to me and say "whoa" whilst pointing to the speaker with wide eyes. Then, probably with an amused smile on my face, I would take a seat to see how events unfolded. I have a huge problem refraining from pointing out logical errors, so if the discussion proceeded in a well reasoned fashion then I would likely remain quite and feel astoundingly blessed that I was fortunate enough to witness such an unusual event.

I fear that I would probably enter the fray if I see some serious fallacy in the way the discussion followed. Just to clear up what I think makes sense and what I think doesn't.

[koan]

SnoozeControl;459246 wrote: Nice use of the word "whilst."


thank you, thank you very much