Occassionally I have participated in discussions where assumptions are presented as facts. Even worse, those assumptions can frequently take the form of an attack.
For example, “you are not listening to me”. In fact these statements typically represent a subjective opinion , albeit presented with factual authority.
These are the worst kind of conversation. Rarely do they achieve anything beyond creating animosity and bad will. Which leads to the questions like why does this happen?
Seeking Something
Logic dictates conversations, discussions and meetings have purpose. Whether it just be a cheerful discourse to make you feel good, exchange of information, plotting actions or a myriad of other things, ultimately there is a reason.
Animosity and bad will are probably seldom the goal. Why would anyone initiate and sustain a discussion that could lead to sadness or disappointment. What is the point?
Feeding the Ego
Everyone is important. Sometimes people get the feeling you don’t understand their importance. This is one of the triggers of these difficult conversations.
The fictional Vulcan race from the Star Trek franchise are founded in logic. By removing emotion from the equation, like the Vulcans do, the type of discourse I have described here does not occur.
That is, assumption based attack focused conversations require strong emotions to be present. With emotions removed from the equation, solely reacting logically rather than how you feel (or a combination thereof) eliminates the possibility of a bad conversational experience.
In these cases the focus is on the outcome. The objective is far more likely to be attained.
