Etiquette Voles

My first name for this blog was “I’m Just Sayin’: The Universal Conversation Enabler.” Someone beat me to it, but it’s all good.

Currently in the U.S., this phrase is a kind of drop cloth with which to clean up nasty interpersonal spills. Compare these statements:

1.) “You’re ugly and stupid.” Clearly the ‘correct’ reaction is to take offense.

2.) “You’re ugly, stupid and fetid. I’m just sayin’.” Here, despite the ‘fetid’ accelerator, the ‘correct’ reaction is to laugh, perhaps with a refreshing touch of self-irony.

Every post and comment of mine here or anywhere else should be imagined to contain somewhere a phrase like “in my informed but not omniscient opinion,” “from my limited perspective,” or “according to the current imperfect state of my knowledge.” I don’t include these phrases every time because 1.) life is short, and 2.) duh. I’m not aware of anyone who is exempt from these qualifications. I will accordingly imagine these phrases appended to all comments, even from those not apparently attuned to their applicability to themselves, and I encourage all readers to do the same.

I quite regularly disagree with myself. I’m not anxious about that. Feel free to join me.

I am NOT abdicating responsibility for what I say, nor am I offering anyone else absolution for saying dumbass crap. But don’t bother taking offense, because I’m just sayin’. I believe opinions get better informed and less limited in their scope and quality through a process of revision in honest interaction with others. That’s what this blog is for. If it helps you to imagine a salon, or a bar, please do so. Try not to break the pool cues over each others’ heads.

The management reserves the right to consider all contents of this blog to be a performance of self and editable accordingly. Minor corrections of spelling, grammar and style will be made at any time without notice. More substantive changes may and often will be made during the first day of a new posting as the thought and its performance play out. Older posts will be considered ‘archival’ as to substance but may be modified or disavowed in explicit updates or later writings.