Good question. An individual discussing a topic implies a deep, historical, perspective on the part of the discussant. When I engage individuals (with deep structure and historicity), I have a lot of work to do to carry on a healthy conversation. Such work is exhausting. Even a *social* person will tire eventually. I tire quickly. And if you double down and apply alcohol to the context, then while you may *think* you're doing the required work to listen empathetically and treat the individuals with respect (including yourself), things like alcohol trick you. You think you're doing a good job of it. But you should know that you're not. The more you drink, the less competent at that work you become.
So, the answer is to adopt roles when shallowness is required. If, in that rare instance, depth is required, you can then commit to the work (or bail because you know you're not in a competent state). There's another, more subtle, reason to adopt roles. To have a fully Socratic conversation, you have to commit to an extra extent to play along with things your authentic, fully complex, individual self may not agree with. The most well-known role is Devil's Advocate. But there are many others. If I don't adopt the role, I end up just sitting there listening politely ... which people have told me seems "aloof" or "stand-off-ish". My last best story in this vein was when some guests raised the issue of gun control. My full individual believes everyone should have lots of big powerful guns and fire at will. My socially adjusted subset of roles adopted argue that guns are *the* material cause of gun deaths and, rationally, should be restricted. How they should be restricted further subdivides that subset of roles. On 1/15/19 10:26 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote: > Glen writes: > > < It's truly a breath of fresh air when I run across someone else who is > willing to swap roles several times through a single conversation. > > > Why do there have to be roles and not just topics? -- ☣ uǝlƃ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
