 The benefit of the doubt
posted by Dante on 9.6.2004 - 10:05 am
I hear that adage a lot, "give them the benefit of the doubt." What the hell does that mean? What is 'the doubt'? And how can doubting someone be a benefit to them? Maybe by calling it 'the doubt' then it magically transforms the normally negative 'doubt' into a good thing. Perhaps its the same way it works for calling someone or something 'the shit'.
I don't usually give people this good doubt though. When I meet a new person they automatically start out with the noose around their neck and one foot dangling over the opening in the gallows. Maybe I've already given them the doubt because they don't start out twisting in the wind, but I don't think that's the generousity of spirit the framers of this phrase had in mind.
Who hasn't heard the wiser adage, "once bitten, twice shy"? How many times do you let a new person just work you over before you develop an intense mistrust of new faces? The only hueristic you need to match for me is for me to not recognize you - and you are automatically in a deficit.
So how did Pavlov get that dog to stop salivating whenever the church down the street started mass? How do I overcome a response so effectively hyper-conditioned? The key will be for a few of the new faces in my life to hold true to promises made. Actually, that isn't a very self-actualized stance on the problem. I think I need to address my own demons and let people be who they are. The first step will be me simply deciding that people should deserve a small amount of credit that they can choose to throw away or build upon as they see fit.
Its resolved then, I'll turn over a new leaf ... with regard to people anyway. I still think that 'benefit of the doubt' thing is a stupid phrase, and I think my mind's pretty made up on that one.
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 up at Stoopid Pigeon again!
posted by Christopher on 9.7.2004 - 10:19 am
i really can't say when i became a drooling fanboy in the webcomic world, but it happened. seeing another quote (and a link) over at stoopid pigeon has once again made me giddy. i know i said it before, but got dam, i love that comic!
i have my canon of web comics that i read whenever they update. i only read them because i think they really have something. someone famous once came up with a theory about 90 or 95% of EVERYTHING sucking. if we apply that to web comics, there still should be at least a thousand good ones out there. i've only found maybe 20 of those, of which 10 update anymore. 8-bit theatre and wigu are probably my favorites for the story, and bolt city and maakies are my favorites for art, but pigeon is the only one that really speaks to me, for whatever deep-rooted psychological reason. so to see recognition there, even if it was just a random text search, makes me feel good and keeps me going w/ faustian deal.
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