Vimoh's Blog

Once upon a time, on a world not very different from this one, there lived a race of people with very short memory spans. They remembered nothing of yesterday, and only very little of what had happened a few hours ago. Their view of the world therefore, was mostly limited to what was happening now.

One popular debate that raged among the people was about the existence of the sun and the stars. During the day, one group sang praises of the sun and laughed at those who spoke of the night sky and the stars. They said that all that needs to be seen can be seen quite clearly in the light of the sun. Anyone who, in spite of the sun’s very real presence, insisted on believing in fairy tales about a so-called star-studded night sky, was clearly delusional.

After sunset, the other group praised the stars while singing and dancing under the beautiful night sky. They ridiculed the sun people and asked them where their sun was, now that the glorious stars had appeared to prove them wrong. Revelling under the starry sky, they denied the importance, and even the existence, of the sun. They declared that the stars were all anyone should ever need and that no sun could ever stand against the sheer awesomeness of the night sky.

There was a third group on this world, a relatively small minority of people. This was composed of those who knew of dawns and twilights. They knew that while it was true that the sun lit everything up when it was out, it also blinded people to the beauty of the stars. They also knew that even though the night sky was beautiful to behold and brought them much joy, it wasn’t really much of a light source, especially when compared to the sun.

They did their best to point this out to the day people and the night people, but nobody much listened to them. And thus, the quarrels went on as surely and as frequently as the sun rose and set.

Someone or the other is always wrong on the internet. Setting people straight is a common pastime on the web. Some do it for sport, with others, it is an obsession. I am guilty of it myself (mi lord! agar ye gunaah hai, toh…).

I usually don’t do it though. I have been in conversation with utterly obnoxious people who I did not agree with one bit and I still manage to ignore it all. I do however, make it a point to debate the hell out of them when there is at least one listener around.

I know full well that I can’t change anyone. The violent would remain violent, the stupid will remain stupid, and the impressionable (even though they may agree with my arguments right now) will remain impressionable.

The reason I care about the listeners is that they are the decision-makers. I might also add that they are often the majority. Listeners sit around, seemingly doing nothing. Most of the time, you won’t even know they are there. But make no mistake, listeners are everywhere, at least in most social environments, and definitely all over the internet.

When you let someone you believe is wrong have his say without interrupting him, you rob the listeners of a chance to hear the other side of the story – YOUR side of the story.

When I debate an issue on the internet, my intention is not to ‘defeat’ the other person or to ‘prove’ him wrong. Anyone who has ever been in an argument will know that that is impossible. I debate for the nameless third parties. I debate so that my opponent’s view of the world may not be the only one to go out to them.

It may seem like a wasteful exercise to many. I call it balance.