FILL: A Commentary on Un-American Ideas

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Original Posting 21 March 2008

A Commentary on Un-American Ideas

Recently on another list, there was an outbreak of unhappiness (aka at least a fire flurry, if not a full-fledged flamewar). Along with the normal irritations of electronic communications, in the lengthy diatribe that triggered the event, one of the participants threw out this statement as a final stance:

That is an un-American idea!

Apparently this was supposed to convince us all to draw back in horror and join in condemning that evil notion. Instead it caused a number of us to condemn his argument.

I refuse to continue the argument, and there have been apologies all around, yet . . . I was intrigued as to why this label should be considered both as a strong argument and as highly irritating to some of us. Of course, one of the difficulties is that the list actually crosses the national boundaries, and some of us don't even live in the United States. So insisting that we should condemn a notion simply because it didn't originate there seemed less than desirable.

Then I got to thinking about parallel arguments, such as:

That is a woman's idea
That is a [insert preferred despised minority here] idea

And I realized that this is the tarbrush approach to debate. I think it falls in the same region as such logical fallacies as ad hominem, genetic fallacy, guilt by association, personal attack or ad hominem abusive, poisoning the well, and even a bit of red herring. The argument is based on the idea that if I can show you that there is something nasty or ugly about the source of the idea, then you will reject the idea without ever considering its merits.

Aside from the creakiness of the logic, this assertion also has the property of backhanding groups -- since to portray the source as tainted, we have to blacken the reputation of an entire group. At some level, that is the exclusionism and discrimination that occasionally threatens to overwhelm the American ideals of inclusion and equality. If American ideals stand on anything, it's the acceptance of all people and ideas on their merits, without regard for where they came from.

My point, if I have one aside from working through my own irritation at this line of argument (or should it simply be invective, given that it is really a single assertion?), is to warn us all to avoid this kind of attack. Saying that this is a bad idea because it came from those people . . . as Pogo said, they is us. One of the greatest gains of the digital age, with the internet rapidly dissolving national boundaries, has been a realization that ideas must stand or fall on their merits, and that the tarbrush of national origin now blackens us all if you try to wield it. So . . . stick with the high ground of principle and reason, not the swamp of emotional attacks and discrimination.

No real conclusions here, just another step on the road of life.

When we write, we learn about ourselves.

EXERCISE: I Found It!

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Original Posting 29 March 2008

You're in luck. I stumbled across a cache of notes from some years back that seem to have odd hints and suggestions about some ideas for writing. So I thought perhaps I would use them as the basis for some new exercises. I know you've been waiting with trembling fingers. So let's get right to it.

Number one seems to have been me playing with variations on a phrase. Why don't you give it a try yourself? I was starting with "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Since one of my pet peeves is the tendency to use punishment when reward will work better, I was mangling it somewhat like this:

1. An ounce of reward is worth a pound of punishment.
2. A pat of reward is worth more than a pound of punishment.
3. A small pat of reward outweighs a pound of punishment any time.
4. A light pat in reward does more than a hard pound of punishment.
5. A light rewarding pat keeps people going long after a hard pounding has stopped all effort.

Not quite ready for prime time, but certainly a lot of fun to play with. Take your own phrase and warp those words! Try to come up with an aphorism that will live through the ages, or at least until tomorrow.

Number two. How about picking a number between one and six? Okay? Here are some phrases I had scribbled down.

1. My deathday is coming
2. innocent until traumatized (or innocent until victimized? Pick the one you like better)
3. bums are subject to grime and banishment
4. extraordinary minus ordinary equals ???
5. He's a time bopper
6. It wasn't just a story, was it? (With thanks to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen?)

Now take that phrase and do something with it. Maybe start out by doing a little brainstorming about just what the heck it means, and what it might suggest about a story or poem. Perhaps about a character, or a scene? Go ahead, what happens next?

Number three seems to be a whole collection of odd titles. So for those of you who'd like a title to start your wheels churning, here you go. Pick one that resonates for you and scribble. Or pick a number from one to 11 and see which one you've stumbled across.

1. The Songs They Sing in Hell
2. Some Days You Can't Get Out Of the Blender
3. The Rainy Season of Martha
4. High Precipitation with a Chance of Statues
5. Equations That Bite
6. Bury Me at A Crossroads
7. A Murchison by Any Other Name
8. A Little Castration's Good for the Soul
9. Boots without Laces
10. The Bizarre Tale of Love and Kippers
11. The People's Libation Fount

There are more notes on this stack but I think I'll stop here and save some for later. So go ahead and write.

When we write, we let others imagine.

EXERCISE: And when the prank was sprung?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 1 April 2008

Rather simple, actually. Over at http://us.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/03/31/fool.pranks.work/index.html there's a list of work place pranks. Your task is simply to pick one and put it in a real - well, fictional - work place. Imagine the people, the office, the work and of course, the prank.

And the aftermath. What happens next? And then?

Let's see. In case the page is gone, the pranks are:

1. Put a pair of pants and shoes in a stall in the toilet to make it appear to be in use.
2. Send a fake love note from one coworker to another
3. Have all the women in the office tell the boss in strictest confidence that they are pregnant.
4. Call the electric company using a coworker's name to tell them that the person is moving and ask that the electricity be shut off.
5. Fill the soda vending machine with beer.
6. Rig the boss's chair to drop during a meeting
7. Place a sign on the toilet door saying "the company ran out of toilet paper, please use your own resources."
8. Page a coworker over the loudspeaker telling them  to report to the CEO immediately
9. Shrink-wrap everything in a coworker's cubicle
10. Put a "house for sale" ad in the newspaper for a coworker's home

Incidentally, the article suggests that faking resignations, gluing office supplies to desks, and covering cubicles in aluminum foil are common pranks. It also suggests that almost one-third of office workers are on one end or the other of April Fool's pranks.

So-pick a prank, and tell us how it works out in that office, right over there in the office building in your mind.

Write!

When we write, we let others imagine.