HE YELLED, SHE YELLED....

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

-Margaret Thatcher

 

Today morning, my girlfriend and I were entangled in an argument concerning economics that sparked out of a simple question. Of course no argument is ever intended (when I'm not involved). This argument was heated and she was obviously winning. Oh, frustration was setting in fast and furiously. Why was I getting frustrated by her winning an argument?

In my effort to answer that question I realized that I was not frustrated because she was winning the argument but because I looked at the argument as a competitive intercourse. That is to say, her win was not the problem but the fact that I believed she had won was the problem. I only needed to see that it was not a competition but she was simply trying to elevate me to a new level of awareness.

Frustration and anger are a common emotion when entwined in any conflicting situation. But why do they result? The answer is a kin to what I had experienced. It is not the fault of the one who we assume caused the frustration but the on who opted to be frustrated.

However, the argument in the she and I sense is not what everyone else may term as arguments. We look to convince the other that our premise justifies our conclusion i.e. the first order argument as opposed to the everyday argument. Nonetheless, my theory of what our arguments are is not necessarily how I'd like to feel once I am done and I  have "lost". Now, that is the problem with society and the human behaviour. You are either competitive or not. It's a problem because we feel that anything as minute as an argument is a conquest for success or a lunge for failure. We have been raised to believe that if you "lose" an argument you lack intelligence, however, been proven wrong is a chance to gain knowledge.

Today morning I gained knowledge but society would have me believe that I "lost" an argument. Every location in which an argument breaks out is not a court of law for that is the only place in which you can "lose" an argument. 

Essentially, do not be frustrated by that "lost" argument but be excited by the gained knowledge.