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HKCavalier wrote:
Saturday, May 15, 2004 10:05
I used to live with a wonderful little boy named Simon. I remember one night when he was about three, he, his mom, and I were taking a walk. Simon would not stop needing his mom to fuss with his coat. "I'm too hot...I'm cold...the collar's itching me...I don't wanna wear it...can I wear my coat again, mommy...the zipper's all weird...etc." His mom was getting plenty frustrated and couldn't understand why he couldn't just make up his mind or something. But I realized something that night. It occured to me that Simon wasn't rationally discussing his body temperature and trying to mannage it. Simon really just wanted his mother to fuss over him a little bit. he wanted her to kneal down and put her face right up to his, and muss up his hair and matter a little bit more than usual to his mom. And he wasn't consciously manipulating her, either, he was faced with a need (his mom's attention) and was throwing out all the phrases that had gotten the desired response in the past (+ some new ideas that came to him that night, e.g: "the zipper's all weird").

I mention all of this because I was thinking about how a few posters on this board really like to call people names. Other well intentioned posters go to great lengths to explain why namecalling really doesn't get the desired effect. But, you see, they don't understand the true intent of the namecalling any better than Simon's mom knew why her son could not get comfortable. Calling people names gets their posts responded to. Calling people names makes other people worry about them, extend extensive well-intentioned "aid" and makes them a force people (begrudgingly) reckon with.

HKCavalier

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Originally posted by Calhoun:


What a DUMBASS!!!

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Originally posted by Succatash:

Everyone who has posted in this thread is guilty of bringing attention to themselves and purposefully enticing responses.

We could include a discussion about anger and pain and social pecking order, and what it means to "put someone down" and why there is more than one reason to explain namecalling.

Anyone interested? Yawn.

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Originally posted by Calhoun:
Dumbasses!

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SergeantX wrote:
Saturday, May 15, 2004 14:39
See Calhoun, you're just the kind of jerk that gives name-calling a bad name. I'm no dumbass. I'm a childish prick. Get it straight.

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