I used to have a good friend. We could talk about absolutely anything and had some incredible conversations. He died a few years ago, and I greatly miss him.
What I liked about him, but at the same time, what annoyed me was that he was a contrarian.
Whenever I expressed an opinion, he would typically rubbish it. He would not just say he disagreed and explain why; he would tell me that I talked a load of nonsense in no uncertain terms.
He did this for almost any topic I cared to raise. He was well educated and as sharp as a pin. He could argue black was white.
He was infuriating. More than once, we had some huge arguments, but we never fell out for long.
Sometimes he had deeply thought through an issue and had good reason to take up a contrarian viewpoint but more often than not, he just enjoyed a good debate though it often felt more like a fight.
I miss those conversations. In many ways, they were not constructive conversations. But he provoked some deep thinking in me, and I rarely failed to change my views in at least some small way.
If we are to make better sense of the world, we should seek out contrarian thinkers and not avoid them.
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