A comment on "civilized" discourse.

For a country that prides itself as "developing" and "progressive", I find it quite odd that the way we fellow countrymen talk to each other, the way we express our opinions and offer our differences - in other words, civil discourse - reflects neither development nor progress in any way whatsoever.

Our conversations these days tend to go one of many different ways:

• We don't always ask the right questions - we beat around the bush too much.
• When the right questions do get asked, we usually give the wrong answers.
• Our truths are either relative or invented - there is no objective Truth anymore.
• To that effect, our truths are now based on how we feel. There's no effort anymore to think things through and analyze, either to try and understand it or to come up with a single argument against whatever it is we disagree with. Instead, we dismiss it entirely on the basis that "It hurt my feelings," or "I was offended," or "I didn't like how it sounded." This also applies when our arguments fail in comparison with objective, fundamental Truth.

And this is perhaps the most prevalent:

• When we can't attack a person's mind (that is to say, his logic), we resort to dealing low blows. We degrade the person's character, looking for the tiniest faults in that person and exploiting them. We launch baseless attacks on the person, calling names, slinging mud, and picking fights - a playground mentality, at best. We try to gain unfair advantages over the person, sometimes to the point of overstepping his boundaries and abusing his freedoms. In short, we drag that person down to our level because we certainly can't go up to his, or at least meet him halfway. There is a term in Latin that is used to describe this exact scenario - ad hominem. And it's an "informal fallacy".Which means it doesn't follow.

No, there is no development or progress when this kind of dialogue continues. And unless we can figure out how we could agree to disagree without being complete douchebags, I don't think we deserve either. We would just be wasting those away. And there would be little hope, if not none at all, to attain them still. It would feel like hanging a carrot in front of a rabbit running on a treadmill - completely pointless.

In closing: There is a reason why your brain is above your heart, your mouth, your fists, and your loins. Because without using the first, everything you do with the rest will make no sense at all.

Good night and good luck.