Jedi temple, Or Battle zone

Jackofalltrades wrote: I'm rather concerned at the level of heated debate that goes on here. No offence, but the form posts read like some kind of Sith Vs Jedi battle in a comic book. (I hope I haven't been guilty of this.) So i'm not sure if it's a good sujestion, but could we make it so that we atleast respect each other's views and not be so concerned for own so we can atleast respond in a constructive way.

please?

If you do not like heated debates stay off the forums, and facebook groups.

Michael has a point. The reason we are here is to hash out some important topics. We need to be questioned and badgered or else we will not grow.

I argue because I think I can add to the conversation. You know, though, I learn the most when I scroll through arguments that have concluded. Most of the time, there hasn't been much improvement from the original subject, even 20 or 30 pages later.

Forums are not for idle and "peace, love" discussion. You can do that with anybody. And, you can do it inside of yourself. Escape to your temple.

If you are going to use an online medium for communication OTHER than to just find like-minded people, you will need to get some back bone and be ready to brawl with your words. To say what you mean. Because, otherwise, this is a waste of time. We must grow.

Put your gloves up. Keep your face guarded at all time. Leggo!

Debate is about argument not arguments :S

Adder wrote: Debate is about argument not arguments :S

And the beginings of an argument is talking about talking...:whistle:

Akkarin wrote: Text is a poor conveyor of speech as is often repeated here. That is why sometimes it is essential to ask direct questions just to clarify and gain some context

^^^This,

It's very difficult to determine the tone of an opinion from text. Thats why emotion cons are so fun and IMO opinion essential :laugh:

Say the right words at the right time:

When a certain person was appointed to the position of domainal
councillor (toshiyoriyaku) by Lord Tsunashige, he invited a certain
person to his residence to celebrate. Another fellow came to look
after the guests, and he tried to compel this particular guest to
drink. The guest replied "It is already late, so I would like the sake-
warming jug to be put away". In his enthusiasm for entertaining the
guests, the fellow lost control of his tounge and said, "If you are going to be so selfish, I
will do with you what was done with Lord Hotta!" At this the guest
got extremly angry, and he excoriated the fellow mercilessly. After a
short while the man apologized, saying "Since I came this evening
to be sure the guests would have a good time, I was thinking only
of how to get everyone to drink, so I unintentionally spoke rashly.
This was my own blunder. I beg your forgiviness." Everyone present
did their best to patch things up bettween the two, and the matter
passed without incident. (Someone said the following in regard
to the incident: After the fellow spoke inapropriately, it was a
spledid thing for him to apologize imediately. It was childish for
the guest to get so angry. It would have been better if he had said
something like: "I suppose you saying that you will treat me like
Lord Hotta was an atempt to dig into my hara. Well, that effort
was a bit misdirected. This is a hara that is dedicated to being of use
to my lord, so I rarely let others dig into it. By the way, it looks like
you have had a bit too much to drink. You should go to the kitchen
and have some tea or something." It is very easy to throw away one's
life becuase of some situation that arises. But in the world there
is somthing even more splendid than dying: saying the right
words at the right time. One should remember this firmly and
not let slip ones mind.)

Adder wrote: This comes back to the emotion argument, and I tend to fall in the camp which tries to control all emotion for a better relationship to higher states of feeling, rather then accepting that some emotions are good. So I get annoyed when people include insults into debating, its injecting the emotion of anger to highlite the authors frustration. Its like talking in upper caps. I go to other forums to have brawls about topics when I feel unJedi like, politics is a good one for that!!! I do not expect it here so it feels like someone cheating if they do it because I try not to do it back. I understand though that some Jedi use emotion when they consider it positive.

We all would like better control of our emotions... ok, maybe not all, but most....

When you see someone loose it, and sink to they name calling and being pissy... Then you must forgive them for loosing their cool and help them reestablish it, for that's what we are here for, right? To help one another?

Emoticons are fine, but as I'm not in the habit of using them, when I'm on a roll, I often forget to use them..... Instead, imagine I'm speaking like Morgan Freeman.... (haha)

You can't practice controlling emotions, say, anger, if you don't get pushed to the point where you have the chance....

There are people who come here to TOTJO and push our buttons and try to get us all heated... Or, worse, come yo TOTJO, and they follow our rules, and our members act out...

This is exactly when you should be trying your hardest to control your anger or frustration....

We are not looking for temptation, for an excuse to be pushed, but we should try to be ready in that event an opportunity arises...

I just read this quote tonight and thought it was fitting for this topic:

"If a man suffers or is injured through the instrumentality of others, let him look to himself, and, putting aside self-pity and self-defense, he will find in his own heart the source of all his woe" - James Allen, The Heavenly Life.

Or in my less elegant way of putting things, life is too short and beautiful to be offended by words. ESPECIALLY on a message board. And even MORE especially (can I do that? haha) on a Temple site with Jedi sworn to establish the cause of peace.

There is a time and place for making points and arguing the merits of certain tenets, but to be offended by other's points of view, even if they say something that might be offensive to the common person? Let it be...let it go...stop and smell a flower or stink bug or something.

This message was brought to you by the least offended and most humble person at this Temple...LTK.

MTFBWY!

(And for those of you that are unfamiliar with me, I was totally kidding about the least offended person part, haha.)

Learn_To_Know wrote: This message was brought to you by the least offended and most humble person at this Temple...LTK.

MTFBWY!

(And for those of you that are unfamiliar with me, I was totally kidding about the least offended person part, haha.)

nuh uh! im WAY more humbler than you!

I choose Jedi Temple.....
Discussions respectful of different opinions...
the Temple is about acceptance , accepting differences,
without judging or belittling others.
Debate is fine as long as it remains civil...
insulting someones personal opinion, is, in fact, a personal attack
what can be more personal than ones opinion.
If you are debating for sport, which can be entertaining, that is different,
but how is someone to know if it is sport or a serious discussion?
I am but a mere novice, with much to learn,
and each opinion reflected here is part of my education.
So thanks....