The Decline of Good Conversation

[Ninot]

Originally posted by civman2000
Wow, DanS actually had the most intelligent response of anyone in the thread .

Not rly.

I thought he was way off

[GePap]

Originally posted by DanS


I'm sure it was stylized, like conversations in the golden age of US cinema.

And yet those witty conversations passed as mass entertainment, while today you get explosions and such.

I do think conversation is getting dumber, and people will avoid "controversial topics" like the plague, and those are the topics you can have the best conversations about.

Its like comparing modern e-maisl to letters from 1850.

To paraphrase badly an old comparison between NYC, Boston, and Philly

In New York its what you are worth, in Boston what you know, in Philly who you know.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by DanS
What a ridiculous article. It's like a myth of the intellectual caveman. The level of conversation has likely increased with the level of education, the Boston elite of the 19th century notwithstanding.

Maybe -- although the average high-school graduate today has a much, much smaller vocabulary than a mid-century high-school grad.

But what's striking -- and what this article is really lamenting -- is how boring and inarticulate elites have become. The Ivy League grads of my generation seem to be able to talk of nothing but their jobs, their investments, their diet-and-exercise regimes, and their favorite TV shows; they're distinguished from everyone else only by their relative lack of interest in celebrity gossip. History? Literature? Art? Philosphy? Science? All are foreign to them, as is anything in which they don't have an immediate, and usually material, interest. They can't hold conversations worth having -- which is just as well, I suppose, because they're not worth talking to.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Maybe -- although the average high-school graduate today has a much, much smaller vocabulary than a mid-century high-school grad.

But what's striking -- and what this article is really lamenting -- is how boring and inarticulate elites have become. The Ivy League grads of my generation seem to be able to talk of nothing but their jobs, their investments, their diet-and-exercise regimes, and their favorite TV shows; they're distinguished from everyone else only by their relative lack of interest in celebrity gossip. History? Literature? Art? Philosphy? Science? All are foreign to them, as is anything in which they don't have an immediate, and usually material, interest. They can't hold conversations worth having -- which is just as well, I suppose, because they're not worth talking to.

I agree, sadly....and I am in that age group. I miss the conversations I had in my nerdy unversity...

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
That's not fair...Sirotnikov's threads are dead before they even start

pfft

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly

The Ivy League grads of my generation seem to be able to talk of nothing but their jobs, their investments, their diet-and-exercise regimes, and their favorite TV shows; they're distinguished from everyone else only by their relative lack of interest in celebrity gossip.

Just last week I found myself trapped in a conversation others were having about their houses and their mooted improvements thereunto.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by duke o' york


Just last week I found myself trapped in a conversation others were having about their houses and their mooted improvements thereunto.

Oh, man, that seems to be topic A with everyone we know; it's one of the things I dread about going back to the States. All our conversations seem to go like this:

US: Buddhism is something that's really begun to intrigue us since moving to Asia; it seems to cantain most of the virtues of the Christianity we grew up with, but none of the nasty guilt. We're trying to learn more from a monk we met recently.

THEM: We put a jacuzzi in the master bathroom.

US: Um...

THEM: Um...

[Embarrassed silence, quickly followed by change of subject and/or awkward goodbyes]

[KrazyHorse]

I honestly avoid talking about any "serious" subject with people in real life because most people:

a) Don't want to talk about it

or

b) Are much more ignorant about political, historical and cultural issues than are the people here who participate in such discussions

The only one I talk to about that stuff in real life on a regular basis is my fiancée. I have occasionally gotten into it with other people, and I generally do a pretty good job of ripping them to pieces. This place really has provided, if not an education as such, at least the drive to become educated on a number of topics in order to convincingly hold my own.

Poly is sort of like an intellectual arms race. The same topics get brought up time and again, and unlike conversations in real life, they can wait while you do research. This leads to a much higher level of discussion than I get elsewhere. Except on anything having to do with math and physics. Most of you are pretty ****ing clueless there, and embarrass yourselves every time you bring it up.

[Lancer]

I'd rather talk to a rice farmer about the rain than an 'elite' about how much stuff he's got. They seem to be everywhere and that seems all they can talk about.

[Urban Ranger]

Why conversations are bad

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

pfft

Exhibit A

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by The diplomat
Blame message boards. When you can go on any message board and post messages like "woot", "lol" or "rotfl", how can we expect people to have sophisticated conversation skills?

I have absolutely no idea. For example, Eventis has turned Sava, Chegitz, Kuci and myself into wootroflmongerers

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Pekka, j'ai entendu que t'as un vraiment articul.

This is so right on so many levels

[Provost Harrison]

That be yarrr and wooo...

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
That be yarrr and wooo...

Clearly, you can't even write

Teht be Yarrr and woo (no triple o!)

[Provost Harrison]

n00b