Writing, wrestling and musing on manipulation
This was never really meant to be a blog about my life, for a number of reasons I'd rather not go into (the fact I don't want to go into them is the first of those reasons) but as the overwhelming majority of those who might read this do blog in that fashion I'll respond a little in kind. Nevertheless, I'll always have some kind of semi-philosophy, oddly meandering musing or attempt at thought provocation. Thus:
Aaron went to the wrestling, and event only slightly higher on the list of things Aaron was unlikely to do, just above visiting a strip joint and just below ironing his underpants. Firstly; major thanks to dragontail for the free ticket. He seems determined to push me out of my comfort zone...well, gently nudge anyway and has a knack for picking just the right thing. The company has a great deal to do with this I feel, you know who you is. Secondly, I was astonished and amazed to find myself being astonished and amazed at some of the athleticism being displayed and laughing along with some of the humour. But these highly entertaining moments were diluted somewhat by long periods of nothing much happening at all. The tag team championship doohicky was a hoot though, great entertainers all in that one. Thirdly and perhaps most unexpectedly I discovered there was a whole new physical language on display. I'd seen the occasional bought on television, largely thanks to dragontail and the rest during an event I'd rather not recall but I had never noticed this wrestling sign language before. At it's most basic level what constitutes a punch, kick and all manner of blows is quite different from their real contemporaries but they are consistent and once I learnt to recognise them as such the matches became somewhat less opaque. What was more interesting was that as various belts were referred to each wrestler would make a gesture around their waist describing the distinctive and ludicrously large outline of the thing, so despite not being able hear anything of what was being vocalised I could follow the thrust of their comments. In a similar vein, a number of the wrestlers had a unique action that would cue the audience, either announcing a particular attack and indicating they should respond with a catch phrase. Very pantomime. All in all a fascinating experience but one I would only contemplate doing again with such good friends to fill in the boring bits.
Now I am going to attempt to manipulate you.
Does that sound sinister to you? Or at the very least do you feel that there's a negative connotation to that sentence? I rather suspect that it does but I'm hoping to convince you that it shouldn't. Of course 'convince' is just nicer way of saying 'manipulate' which is a fact at the heart of my little argument. To manipulate a thing just means to use it and is not the sense I'm challenging, to manipulate a person on the other hand, means to influence them; to try and make them think, feel or act a certain way. Now I would assert that we (humans) find the notion of being influenced in such a way to be repugnant because one of the values universal to humans is personal freedom. However, much of our daily behaviour is manipulative. The way we present ourselves to society in clothing and manner is aimed at manipulating peoples impression of ourselves (and arguably our opinions of ourselves) and whilst that could be used to promote your own interests to the detriment of others I would still say that the act itself is morally neutral.
Blurg, it is late and I would like to post this before the initial personal bit becomes irrelevant. Will continue musing of manipulation next time.
If anyone cares that is, which I am beginning to doubt. Nobody reads all this tripe anyway, it's not as though it has any relevance in real life...like in guilt tripping folks into reading your next blog post and writing nice comments about this one.
Aaron Braegen
PS: Grease the axle.
Aaron went to the wrestling, and event only slightly higher on the list of things Aaron was unlikely to do, just above visiting a strip joint and just below ironing his underpants. Firstly; major thanks to dragontail for the free ticket. He seems determined to push me out of my comfort zone...well, gently nudge anyway and has a knack for picking just the right thing. The company has a great deal to do with this I feel, you know who you is. Secondly, I was astonished and amazed to find myself being astonished and amazed at some of the athleticism being displayed and laughing along with some of the humour. But these highly entertaining moments were diluted somewhat by long periods of nothing much happening at all. The tag team championship doohicky was a hoot though, great entertainers all in that one. Thirdly and perhaps most unexpectedly I discovered there was a whole new physical language on display. I'd seen the occasional bought on television, largely thanks to dragontail and the rest during an event I'd rather not recall but I had never noticed this wrestling sign language before. At it's most basic level what constitutes a punch, kick and all manner of blows is quite different from their real contemporaries but they are consistent and once I learnt to recognise them as such the matches became somewhat less opaque. What was more interesting was that as various belts were referred to each wrestler would make a gesture around their waist describing the distinctive and ludicrously large outline of the thing, so despite not being able hear anything of what was being vocalised I could follow the thrust of their comments. In a similar vein, a number of the wrestlers had a unique action that would cue the audience, either announcing a particular attack and indicating they should respond with a catch phrase. Very pantomime. All in all a fascinating experience but one I would only contemplate doing again with such good friends to fill in the boring bits.
Now I am going to attempt to manipulate you.
Does that sound sinister to you? Or at the very least do you feel that there's a negative connotation to that sentence? I rather suspect that it does but I'm hoping to convince you that it shouldn't. Of course 'convince' is just nicer way of saying 'manipulate' which is a fact at the heart of my little argument. To manipulate a thing just means to use it and is not the sense I'm challenging, to manipulate a person on the other hand, means to influence them; to try and make them think, feel or act a certain way. Now I would assert that we (humans) find the notion of being influenced in such a way to be repugnant because one of the values universal to humans is personal freedom. However, much of our daily behaviour is manipulative. The way we present ourselves to society in clothing and manner is aimed at manipulating peoples impression of ourselves (and arguably our opinions of ourselves) and whilst that could be used to promote your own interests to the detriment of others I would still say that the act itself is morally neutral.
Blurg, it is late and I would like to post this before the initial personal bit becomes irrelevant. Will continue musing of manipulation next time.
If anyone cares that is, which I am beginning to doubt. Nobody reads all this tripe anyway, it's not as though it has any relevance in real life...like in guilt tripping folks into reading your next blog post and writing nice comments about this one.
Aaron Braegen
PS: Grease the axle.