Writing for my enemy
Sometimes winning is not what you want
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It’s Monday night and the beginning of a new tradition — whiskey Zoom with two old friends. The call ends. The effects of the whiskey don’t. Rather than do the wise thing — drink some water and go to bed I just check Facebook.
I read a post that I consider dishonest, disingenuous and likely to promote harm.
There is a rise in my heart rate. I refute the post, with logic if not diplomacy.
My refute is met with a mixture of denial and counter-argument.
I meet the counter-argument with more logic and facts.
The facts and logic are ignored. The enemy maintains his position by talking about something else which is at best tangential.
The process continues. The enemy dismisses sources because they disagree with him and must, therefore, be biased.
The enemy generalises about the nature of entire nations, of entire continents.
The enemy categorises me as being part of a group that I do not belong to or agree with.
Faced with a skewering question, he clearly cannot answer, the enemy evades.
Faced with a statement, the enemy has posted since proven wrong, the enemy ignores the new information. He shows no appearance of learning or acknowledging past errors.
The whiskey wears off. I go to bed. My mind chews on the exchange and chases away sleep.
A groggy morning comes. The enemy is in a different time zone. I check to see if he has had the last word and whether it is worth countering.
The enemy is a real person. The enemy also lives inside my head.
I could ignore the enemy. Unfriending would be simple. I might sleep better at night. It would not be hard to turn my mind in other directions.
I could stop feeding the enemy in my head. I have a world of friends and interests, it would be enough to place my attention with these.
But I choose not to put the enemy down and I have to ask myself why not?
A first answer: there are things I care about, events which affect me, people close to me and also the world…
