Sue For Peace

I sometimes have a way of making bold assertions that I can't really back up. I know I shouldn't step out onto uncertain ground, but I can't help myself. Where other people might admit their mistake and let everybody move on, I have my own way. I'm regrettably stubborn, and cling to my position like a mule in the face of universal hostility and unimpeachable facts. It's not an aspect of my personality that I'm proud of, but there it is.

Yesterday I critiqued Leonardo DiCaprio for seeming to play nothing but rich, tormented characters. In my mind were his turns in such films as "The Wolf Of Wall Street", "The Great Gatsby", and "The Aviator". My roommate pointed out a number of films in which he was not playing a rich or tortured character, including "Blood Diamond", "Shutter Island" and others. I masochistically helped him out by mentioning "Titanic" to further aggravate him.

Once I realize I've maneuvered myself into an indefensible position, I embrace it. I abandon any hopes of empirically proving myself right, and start aiming for a more achievable goal. Armed insurgencies, it seems to me, win not because they can achieve a full military victory, but because they can achieve something more like a political victory. I'm no history major, but I don't think we really crushed England in the revolution. I think we made them see that it wasn't going to pay to beat us.

That's what I do at that point. I wage a campaign of absurd argument designed to frustrate my interlocutor until they abandon the fight. What more is there to a victory than having one's opponent concede the field of battle? Tactics such as I describe don't do much to make people like you, but then I'll always remember how Steve Spurrier said that if everyone likes you a lot, it may be because they consider you an easy win. I'm no easy win.