Posts tagged Humor
How to Change Someone’s Mind
Sep 17th
Throughout our lives, we encounter many situations in which we try to change someone’s opinion to match our own.
As children, we tried to persuade our playmates to agree with us as to what to play, where to go, what to do.
Occasionally, we tried to persuade our parents to let us stay up later, buy us a particular toy, let us watch television.
As teenagers, we might have had younger siblings to convince to let us have our way, best friends to agree on which movie to see and sweethearts to persuade that we were being honest and true to them.
As adults, we sometimes have a fellow juror or a spouse we try to persuade to agree with us, a co-worker we want to do things the way we want and our own children to persuade that what we want is best for them.
But have you ever examined the art and process of changing someone’s mind? Have you ever thought about your successes and failures and drawn any conclusions about what works and what doesn’t? Have you ever taken the time before an argument to determine what you want to achieve, what the best persuasive evidence is to present and what characteristics your adversary has that might help your cause?
Childhood arguments are simple. We either reach a mutual agreement about what we want to do or one of us walks away in hurt or anger. With our parents, if we don’t have a convincing argument to prove our point, the larger, more powerful person wins.
Teenage disagreements are more complicated. We can usually win an argument with a younger sibling based on our broader knowledge and experience, but we have to be aware that an arbitrary, selfish decision might be used against us later in life. With best friends and sweethearts, we are on equal ground, and logic has to come into play along with our emotions.
Adult arguments are the most complicated of all, and yet society wants us to conduct them in the most logical, dispassionate manner possible, as adults, without violence.
So, what is the best way to change someone’s mind, so that not only do you achieve the result you want, but all parties are also in nonresentful agreement afterwards?
The best approach is to use logic. For example: “If all A is B, and C is A, then C is also B.”
Who can argue against that? If you don’t agree that C is B, then you have to disprove either “all A is B” or “C is A.”
“All politicians are crooks. Richard Nixon was a politician. Therefore, Nixon was a crook.”
The problem with logic is that the opponents have to agree that the premises are true. (“Two neighbors were arguing over the backyard fence, but they couldn’t reach an agreement, because they were arguing from different premises.”)
Humor can be useful in arguments, because it can break the tension, put things in a different perspective and sometimes allow you to save face and agree to change your opinion in an argument that isn’t really important.
However, unless the parties agree to the truth of the premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
Pro-life people believe “All abortion is killing. Killing is wrong. Therefore, all abortion is wrong.”
Pro-choice people disagree with either “all abortion is killing” or “(all) killing is wrong,” and therefore they will never agree with the conclusion “all abortion is wrong,” unless they can agree to live with something they believe is wrong.
The pro-choice argument is “Women can do what they want with their bodies. Abortion is an act of doing what you want with your body. Therefore, women can have abortions.”
The pro-life people disagree with “women can do what they want with their bodies.” And until the two sides get in the same backyard and argue from the same premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
When logic fails, threats can sometimes work, followed by force or else sometimes just force without the threat.
“If you don’t give me that ball, I’m going to punch you in the nose.”
“If you don’t go to bed right now, I’m going to give you a spanking.”
Threats and force, however, don’t change minds; they just achieve results in a childish fashion and always cause resentment.
Logic works better, as long as we’re all playing in the same backyard.
I rest my case.
“Your Highness” Your Lowbrowness
Apr 18th
(“Your Lowbrowness”)
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Your Highness looks like a stoner comedy, walks like a stoner comedy, and quacks like a stoner comedy, but the only way that audiences would laugh while watching this mess of a movie would be if they actually were on drugs.
Sure, James Franco is listed in the credits, but I am more inclined to believe that it is his evil twin, Frank Jameso, who is in this failure of a film. You know, the one who hosted the Academy Awards in 2011.
In fact, Franco doesn’t even get top billing in the credits. That dishonor goes to Danny McBride, who also wrote the movie and not so coincidentally gave himself the bigger role.
And rounding out this trio of turpitude is Natalie Portman, whose two distinguishing characteristics in this film are reminders of what she lost in order to make her next film, the excellent 2010 Black Swan.
But I procrastinate.
The story begins with a mildly amusing sight gag of a hanging that fails to succeed because the hangers are little people and they forgot to adjust the gallows for the height of the normal-sized hangee.
He is Prince Thadeous of the Kingdom of Mourn, played by McBride, younger and less accomplished brother of Prince Fabious, played by Franco–I mean, by the evil twin Jameso.
In fact, Thadeous is so weak that when he eventually expresses his overpowering obsession, it comes out only as the tepid, “It would be nice to be king.”
The main plot is that Belladonna, the bride-to-be of Prince Fabious and who is played by Zooey Deschanel, is captured by an evil wizard, and so Prince Fabious goes on another quest to rescue her, this time taking his stumbling, bumbling brother, Prince Thadeous, along with him, which is the second prince’s first quest.
Along the way they encounter Isabel, played by Portman, who is on her own quest. And so they join forces.
In other words, this is a sword and sorcery spoof.
However, mostly it is a waste of time that is lowbrow, knuckle dragging, tasteless, overblown, too over the top and too gross. No, make that three over the top and three gross and therefore four tedious and five unfunny.
Your Highness could even be called “Your Lowbrowness,” but then that would give it more credit than it deserves.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Hippieman’s Plan for America – Part 8
Apr 18th
A whole new line of crap from the hippie perspective. What about our children? Lost jobs in america and how to build a working force like China has. Can we afford our future? Hippieman has got the plan.