I’ve run in to a few people lately who are, I believe ADD (attention deficit disorder), who have a hard time maintaining a level head during a discussion (argument).
These people, during a discussion, tend to interrupt and inject their immediate interpretation of my exposition without hearing the entire theory (or at least most of it). They tend to take bits of the explanation, in isolation, and react to them as if they were stand alone parts rather than to wait for the full explanation to resolve itself into a cogent presentation.
And because they interject with their half interpretations, they are incapable of understanding the bigger picture that is in the throes of being laid out. They often take offense at the segments of the theory, create ill-conceived rejoinders to them and fail, in the end, to come to view the theory in its entirety.
And so I wonder: are people these days, who more and more are afflicted with varying levels of ADD more and more incapable of participating in arguments coherently?
If one cannot hold in one’s mind the parts of an argument, setting aside one’s biases and prejudices — for a time — and put one’s opponent’s “hat” on, as it were, can such a person ever be made aware, fully, of another’s perspective?
I find discussions with such people to be vexing to the max.
So much so, that I’m unsure as to how to make them see my side of the story.
Do I sit calmly and listen to their argument and the evidence set forth? Yes. I can do this, trying on the hat of their position. I settle it here, then there and before I can set it aside and then begin to explain how their hat may or may not fit — we immediately enter into this argument-interuptus. And, of course, because they can never fully understand my side of the story, they either win by default, or storm off in contempt at my trying to expose my opinion in the most plain and simple manner — to no avail.
ARRGH!
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 