SP

I would like to submit to you a simple structure to every argument, as talked about by Aristotle in Rhetoric. There are two parts to an argument: the premise, and the conclusion. (1) By premise , I mean a preliminary point (an assumption if you will) that is taken as granted, or taken as true (example to follow). By conclusion , I mean the logical derivation or logical follow-up of one or more premises (example to follow). I shall use the Aristotlean syllogism (a certain kind of argument in which there are two premises and a conclusion drawn from them) to demonstrate the reason behind the many, ideological or otherwise, arguments that people tend to have. (2) The famous example for syllogism used by Aristotle is: 1.         All men are mortal. (PREMISE 1) 2.        Socrates is a man. (PREMISE 2) 3.         Therefore, Socrates is mortal. (CONCLUSION) In this, the first two are premises , taken as granted. ...

So, I want to start off by explaining why I crack jokes to all of yous here. You see, I had a thing when I was a child when my mother and father would tell me to crack jokes to lighten up the mood. I always thought jokes were the full-stops to decent conversations, and then everyone went home. So, when I didn’t know what to say, and wanted to go home, I’d crack a joke. But then they’d ask me to crack another one, and I’d try to come up with another. There’d be a strange pause, which would make me so uncomfortable I’d want to take my skin off and rinse it, you know what I mean? I don’t enjoy silences. So, I’d joke. I’d joke about hating silences, and people would laugh. No more silences. Jokes came to me easy because of my fear of the lack of them. I grew to hate, and even fear conversation. Soon as someone would say something real, I’d crack a joke. They told me to do stand-up, but I wasn’t too sure, because I thought, hey, that’s not a conversation. That’s just a person sta...