Re: virus: Re: two sides meme

Eva-Lise Carlstrom (eva-lise@efn.org)
Tue, 16 Mar 1999 12:12:43 -0800 (PST)

On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, joe dees wrote:

> At Mon, 15 Mar 1999 11:14:40 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> >At 11:03 AM 3/15/99 -0500, Reed Konsler wrote:
> >
> >>>Au contraire, that is why good people must have the courage
> >>>to examine their convictions.
> >>
> >>Every coin has two sides.
> >
> >Is every side equally valid/true/beneficial/right/valuable/good?
> >If not, then I don't understand your point.
> >
> >--
> >David McFadzean david@lucifer.com
> >Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
> >Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/
> >
>
> This is an example of the "two sides" meme; two sides to a coin, an
> argument, a position, etc. In actuality, such issues are amenable to
> individually differing numbers of multiple relatively stable
> perspectives. Joe E. Dees Poet, Pagan, Philosopher

Deborah Tannen covers this at length and in detail in her excellent book _The Argument Culture_ which I read recently.

Tannen is the author of _You Just Don't Understand_ and _That's Not What I Meant_, both of which are great presentations of how differing communicative styles and assumptions lead to misunderstandings.

--Eva