01.19.07

butt in

Posted in Journal at 1:36 am by erald17

"I am not convinced."

This has been the statement that seems to be tagging ’round my neck for the entire debate society to see since the first time I debated. It was 13th of October 2005, I was standing on the podium preparing to be interpellated by the second speaker of the affirmative side, when this opponent, a seminarian, greeted me, "Good morning to the beautiful speaker of the negative side." With sarcasm I responded, "I am not convinced."

I has been a long while since i uttered that statement. but it has been coming back to me over and over again. "I am not convinced." since that day, i have said these words at the back of my mind perhaps hundreds of times. at the back of my mind, i would say these during class discussions, when i read articles, when i listen to speeches, when i talk with people. many a times would i say, at the back of my mind, "I am not convinced." Yes, no matter how much i try to be open-minded, no matter how open-minded i seem to be in the opinion of others, still there are so many things with which i would not agree. many things…

this is why sometimes i try to detach the idea of debate from my day to day dealing and conversation with other people. in debate, you cannot choose which side to defend. you cannot defend based on what you know and believe to be right. in debate, an answer may be limited to a yes or a no. and it matters much. on the other hand, the normal conversation we have with the people we encounter in each day gives us the avenue to discern which idea will serve us best. we can always choose to react and counteract, to agree and to disagree. to believe and not to believe. it takes an enormous amount of respect for others’ opinions and beliefs, but it also requires sufficient amount of caution to guard our minds against ideas that can abuse our ignorance, manipulate our weakness, or worse, lead us on……..

the question now is "How can you convince me?"

i have said this hundreds of times, and it is never hard for me to say it over and over again, ’cause i am not..i am not convinced.

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