There are many things of which I am sure. But certainties are boring so why delve into that which is well-known and concrete? Why not instead spend our time on the shaky and unstable ground of the uncertain? If nothing else, at least our proverbial deaths will be metaphorically exciting.

Now I am uncertain of many things, and certain of a few. One of the few of which I am certain concerns discussion–not to bore you but only to notify, a stable reference point from which we may launch our thoughts, if you will–, not a particular discussion, but discussion as a general concept. This ‘Discussive Effect’ is easily observable to anyone who has ever discussed any topic. The premise of the ‘Discussive Effect’ is this: the more the topic is discussed, the more divisive it becomes, rendering the discussion itself inherently counterproductive.

Take for example, well any topic du jour (Economic Policies of your choosing, Climate Change,  the Prison Industrial-Complex, Frozen vs. Fried, etc. etc. really, any topic which has a direct and measurable effect), place a false dichotomy on it, and you will see that its discussion only serves to further divide the parties participating in the discussion.

As the discussion escalates in both vehemence and detail each party grows more hostile, contentious, and certain of its own conclusions, until all useful discussion is pushed out of reach by the ever-increasing rhetoric and a ballooning sense of self-righteousness. Each side becomes so convinced that they are correct that the discussion, the real lively one that needs to take place, the one that needs to have life breathed into it from both sides of this false binary, dies at their feet. The discussion brings about its own demise.

Now there can be only one conclusion drawn from the exhaustive and correct considerations above, only one sensible conclusion to the, as I have name it, ‘Discussive Effect’ and that is this:

Any discussion of importance should be avoided at all costs.