Rage and Boredom

[hooplala]

AND they could have sued to have the dog put down... or, depending on the laws in your area, they could have simply called the sheriff to go take care of it.

I would have been happy if they had.  She requested that it not be.

I'm glad that you're a proponent of litagory morality, though.  It's such a rarity among Discordians.  I remain pretty convinced that we would have won a court case; the reasons I did not wait for one to occur were 1) we couldn't afford it and 2) I do not reject the idea that we retained responsibility.  My point with the anecdote was not to assign blame but to explain the situation that occurred and why it led to the thought I had, and I'm bored of letting you derail that.

It would seem that the vast majority of people around these parts find your "point" uninteresting and would rather comment on the subtext of your rant.  If you're upset about your topics being taken apart and dissected I would imagine this forum is not exactly your speed, and perhaps you find this more your cup of tea: http://www.craftster.org/

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Awww, Spunky's bored. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It would seem that the vast majority of people around these parts find your "point" uninteresting and would rather comment on the subtext of your rant.  If you're upset about your topics being taken apart and dissected I would imagine this forum is not exactly your speed, and perhaps you find this more your cup of tea: http://www.craftster.org/

There would be irony, no?

[hooplala]

Natch.

[Arafelis]

It would seem that the vast majority of people around these parts find your "point" uninteresting and would rather comment on the subtext of your rant.

And among The Vast Majority and Nigel, both of you are welcome to their comments.  I'm equally as welcome to find those comments interesting or uninteresting, am I not?

Awww, Spunky's bored.  ... There would be irony, no?

Not until I get enraged, eh?

[Thurnez Isa]

I would like to suggest two more conclusions
- he just didn't like you
or..

- your dog bit his daughter

[hooplala]

It would seem that the vast majority of people around these parts find your "point" uninteresting and would rather comment on the subtext of your rant.

And among The Vast Majority and Nigel, both of you are welcome to their comments.  I'm equally as welcome to find those comments interesting or uninteresting, am I not?

Certainly, thats the problem with freedom.

[Thurnez Isa]

My opinion : The last couple of paragraphs are decent... little darker and you got something

The story makes you sound like a pretentious attention-whore.. like I'm suppose to feel sorry for you for being poor. To be honest I laughed a little when you charged $800

[hooplala]

It's true.  Nobody who owns a dog is too poor for obedience classes.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My favorite part was where he sold some stocks to raise the money. 

[Arafelis]

The story makes you sound like a pretentious attention-whore.. like I'm suppose to feel sorry for you for being poor.

I was worried about that.  I elaborated on her dad's "lifestyle" to show that his situation was deeply unfullfilling.  The contrast that I made between that situation and my family's was intended to explain why we didn't just pay the money right off and avoid the whole fiasco.

I feel the dog bite situation was ultimately no-one's direct fault.  I can accept some responsibility for it because I could and should have prevented it in the first place, and I can assign some to my mother for having bass-ackwards views on how to raise animals.  It was a complex situation with very little agency at work.  But somebody's got to pay, and it's a hard sell to make the case that both sides had legitimate concerns.  Since I assume most people will compassionately side with the victim (and there is nothing wrong with that.  I was also worried that some people might think I was blaming the girl, and I'm glad to see that that wasn't so), I knew I had to be very thorough in presenting the case for the opposition.

Alright, so my next question is: Do you have any specific suggestions for improving this (given what I've said above), giving it a more neutral sound?

[Thurnez Isa]

the part of the bored people getting angry is pretty good, like I said I think it could be a bit "darker"... but it seems unrelated to your story...  Like I said with my comment above the one you replied to, you could draw much better conclusions
I think it's two separate pieces forced together
My opinion: Take the last little bit and expand on that...

[Roaring Biscuit!]

I don't think the story is really what is important.  You may have noticed that most people did not like the backstory.  Ditch the backstory and try and say something interesting about the main point:  the bored people wanting to be angry bit.

just an idea.

x

EDIT:

the part of the bored people getting angry is pretty good, like I said I think it could be a bit "darker"... but it seems unrelated to your story...  Like I said with my comment above the one you replied to, you could draw much better conclusions
I think it's two separate pieces forced together
My opinion: Take the last little bit and expand on that...

  yeh that.

[Arafelis]

Hmm, alright, I'll try to think of ways to do that.  I might be able to just concoct something in the vein of a thought experiment.  This is the experience that led me to that consideration (that people who are bored with their lives deliberately extend reasons to get angry -- something else that I didn't mention was that during this whole affair, the father didn't pay off his daughter's debt despite the fact it was starting to negatively impact her credit.  If he had done that, even while still pursuing litigation against us, I would have been much more sympathetic to the idea that he was actually upset with the situation and not just angry for the sake of being angry), but yeah, I agree that if there's no way to make it sympathetic, no one's going to want to follow me to it.

Does anyone else have anything from their lives that has led them to consider a similar proposition (or that the proposition makes them think of)?  I might be able to draw elements from several stories to make a more universal case.

[fomenter]

i am not sure a great case can be made for a broad stroke generalization, i can say based on personal interactions that people who tend to give others legitimate cause to be angry at them,  tend to look for excuses to be angry at others, but even that i would have a tough time making a strong case for.