I Believe in…
Recently, I was accused of being an “attention whore.” Yeah that was the specific phrase used by one of my friends. This comment was inspired by some of my recent Facebook statuses about Global Warming, Homosexuality, Calvinism, and Americanized Christianity. While at first I was agitated, I took a step back to do some introspection, and realized this person had a valid point. Writer’s do not always have the luxury to hear feedback and give an in depth explanation of a position or motives. In my zeal for knowledge, I may appear to be trying to get people riled, but on the contrary I am genuinely interested in what each member of my audience has to say. Therefore, I need to do a better job.
Those who know me intimately; know I am an equal opportunity offender. I will publicly criticize and express my disgust for Polly-parrot- bleeding-heart-liberals, clueless-conservative-Tea-Partyers, and the mindless-lemming-fundamentalists-Christians. Do I think everyone falls into one of these categories? Absolutely not! In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised and encouraged with the tenor of my Facebook discussions. Many of my friends are great thinkers, and have really good logic and use facts to back up their positions. Each time I am willing to listen, I learn.
Aristotle recognized three primary elements of persuasion thousands of years ago:
Each of us builds a worldview based on these basic elements, but the lines of defining right and wrong become blurry when people use different methods to come to different conclusions. I have no intention of slowing down my discussions on diversity. If it offends you, just ignore it and chalk it up to Paul on another vision quest, but if you are willing to be honest and share why you believe/think what you do, I will do my best to understand where you are coming from. I don’t have to agree with people to understand them.
I’m thinking when you call someone a whore, you’ve defined your ethos, pathos, and logos (logi?) for the reader. The point, is lost for ENFPs or others that will react to the intensity of a provocative comment. Words need to be inspired choices that reflect your audience’s ability to interpret their meaning and your intent– depending on your venue, of course.
Keep stirring the pot, people need to know why they believe what they do and need to search out where it came from. And if they do have a superior understanding then they should also have the patience and mercy for the rest of us to get there
I didn’t mean for that last comment to be anonymous. sorry, I’m still all fingers when it comes to typing my thoughts out.