"and, uh, i would appreciate it if you would stop talking about me behind my back."
"oh yeah? and why's that?"
"uh... because it's wrong, that's why."
"oh yeah? and why's it wrong?"
"uh... i dunno. look, it's just wrong, ok? it's just wrong, that's all. so, uh... stop it, would ya?"
i mean, it's not as if we aren't already talking about folks behind their backs every single day of our lives. i mean, we are human, after all. and as humans, i've kinda noticed that we like to talk about things. about lots of things, as a matter of fact. about the weather. about the lottery. about the game last night. but most of all, about each other. and come to think of it, why must we continually refer to the practice as "talking behind someone's back" in the first place? such a negative connotation indeed. no, if i had my druthers, i would simply characterize it as "talking about someone" period. not behind their backs, mind you. just talking about someone. and surely you "someones" don't expect us to ring you up each and every time we wish to discuss your various feats and foibles just so as not to be accused of talking behind your back, do you? do you? seriously? i mean, i always figured that if we were, in fact, saying something truly critical of you, you would probably prefer that we avoid speaking those words directly to you anyway. i mean, wouldn't you rather that we simply engage in our myriad of ad hominem attacks upon your character outside of your presence? you know, so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities. in fact, the way i see it, we are actually doing you a favour by repeatedly speaking about you behind your back. 'cause g-d knows that we rarely if ever have anything good to say about you in the first place. and so, in the end, isn't it better that we refrain from confronting you face-to-face in order to share our scathing critiques of your hypocrisy and insincerity? isn't it preferable that you never actually learn of our unbridled condemnations of your shallowness and superficiality? isn't it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Actually, it's not that you're only pointing out the bad qualities of said person, but you're also saying it in a way that brings the person down.... It's like, the only reason why you would bring up their bad traits to SOMEONE ELSE is just for the reason of having something to gossip about.
ReplyDeleteIf you really didn't want to hurt that person, you would speak to them personally about their negative traits.
The sole purpose of "talking behind someone's back" is for gossip, nothing more.
Just saying.