I'm Mildly Insightful... What Do You Do?

There is a term in communication theory known as phatic communication, coined by Roman Jakobson (and I only mention his name because it looks good in search engines).

Basically this is any word or phrase meant to initiate communication or keep channels open. Less academically speaking, any pointless speech to get the ball rolling. Simply put: “Hi, how’s it going?”

Phatic communication serves no real purpose other than to lead (or attempt to lead anyway) to more meaningful communications.

Classically speaking, after the small chatter, such topics would invariably lead to the old job. However, it seems to me at least, that more and more conversations begin with not “how’s it going?” but rather straight to the kill and “what do you do?” I attest it to the America’s hang up on employment – pride in having it, working vacations, and 24/7 reachability.

But due to this trend, the art of conversation is dying off. Instead of the phatic “Hello” and starting slow, we now have entire pointless conversations before any real conversation is to be had; which tends to lead to an awkward thud in the chatter after both sides have spoken their piece – much like after the dueling “Hi, how are ya?”s.

I mean, unless one participants job is an illegal Turkish ivory deal whose everyday is fraught with peril… not much gets elaborated on, and each party moves on to the next lawyer or accountant and repeat the dance.

We really need to cease the need to find out what the next person does for a living. How about starting things off by asking “So, what are you into?” Or the classic, “Read any good books lately?” Sure they’re lame, old fashioned ice-breakers, but they worked. Sure, I could be an accountant for a living, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m into it.

Many good plug of the NWOt was lost and many a good debate on the merits of M Theory didnt happen due to the resounding collapse after my, “I’m unemployed at the moment.” I might was well, put up orange cones and have a British bobby disperse the crowd… “Nothin’ to see ‘ere… Unemployed, no redeeming social value…”

Had Orville and Wilbur Wright not been cousins and just met one day at a party, do you really think we would have gotten an airplane out of “So what do you do? I build bikes. Really? Me too… how funny is that?! … Well, see ya.”

Random Musings

Theoretical History?

I was in the local major branded book seller killing time as I normally do. This time I killed a lot more time than usual because they moved the entire store around.

I finally found the history section, but couldn’t find any archeology books. After asking I was redirected to the philosophy section. “I…wah?!”

Sure enough, jammed into the philosophy gondola was a row of archeology books.

I could understand if metaphysical subjects like Atlantis and Stone Henge were in there, but not books on (literally) rock solid facts.

On the next rack – science, including Darwin and Stephen Hawking.

Back by the history section – Religion.

Look, I get it, God created the world… but come on. He did so way more than just 3,400 years ago. Put the books where they belong: in neutral racks. You’re a bookstore, not a tool of the political clerics!

Better yet, put them back where they were, I’ve worn a nice path in the carpet and don’t feel like going on safari.

And yes, I would gripe if religion was put in with fairy tales too.

A Tale of Two Teas

Arizona Green Tea is great stuff. The odd thing about it is, however, is they seem to have a different formula for each type of container they use – from the 20oz. bottles that have more honey to the 1 gallon containers that have more tea-ish after taste.

On coming home from the supermarket one day I find the two 1 gallon bottles I bought (though I prefer the 20oz, one needs to be practical when feeding addictions) were slightly different. They had gone to a new shape, a bit wider all around.

Now came a problem. Which to drink from first? Knowing that each variant container has a variant flavor, I had to choose wisely. If I drank from the new one first, and didn’t care for it, then I had at least the older formula to look forward to. But then this would only lead to an eventual let down, as it’s obviously discontinued and would have to go back to the new anyway.

If I drank from the older one first, I would be getting it out of the way. Just grin and bear it, and relegate myself to the new formula.

But, if I drank from the new, and it did indeed tickle my taste buds, then the older variety would be offensive to me… worthy of scorn even.

Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I’m not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool; you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

Wait… wrong bit.

Well the end result was… well I forget. But it worked because Arizona never seems to fail. Except for maybe their Crazy Carrot Cocktail, vial stuff.

Calibrating the Compass

It’s obvious by now that I’ve been a bit lethargic in my writings. Rest assured, I plan to shift this blog into high gear, both with the personal anecdotes and social deconstruction I guess some (2) of you expect.

Right now though I give you some politics tests I recently took. I for one was curious where my beliefs chiefly fell; or rather, which boat the “experts” tend to place me. As my ramblings tend to bombard the political spectrum’s photo-plate randomly, this may help you the reader get a feel for my positions – especially of your of the type who needs graphs, charts, “twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against [me]”, and 30pt font labels telling you that this dude isn’t in your party and you can’t listen to a word he says no matter how much sense he may make.

So:

According to moral-politics.com
Your Score
Your scored -2 on the Moral Order axis and 2 on the Moral Rules axis.

Matches
The following items best match your score:
1.System: Socialism
2.Variation: Moderate Socialism
3.Ideologies: Social Democratism
4.US Parties: No match.
5.Presidents: Jimmy Carter (87.50%)
6.2004 Election Candidates: John Kerry (81.78%), Ralph Nader (81.78%), George W. Bush (56.25%)

Statistics
Of the 225214 people who took the test:
1.3.3% had the same score as you.
2.16.5% were above you on the chart.
3.71% were below you on the chart.
4.48.3% were to your right on the chart.
5.30.8% were to your left on the chart.

And to politics.beasts.org

Politicalcompass.org has me a bit more to the left than that, but they didnt have a downloadable graphic for me to swipe.

And there you have it. It seems I’m still a leftist dreamer. So be it. I hope all my readers who are the antithesis of this can still find it in their hearts to come back every now and again, if only to duke it out in a flame war on the forums :p