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Thread: "Copper Wire Courage"

  1. #1
    The Doctor Und3ertak3r's Avatar
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    Question "Copper Wire Courage"

    Some time it is best to leave sleeping dogs lie.. Some one woke me up..

    What do I mean by " Copper wire Courage"?

    This is the courage that many people manage when they have a kilometer (mile) or two of copper wire between them and another person..

    This is where an otherwise logical thinking, slowly angered polite person can become rude, obnoxious, easily angered, and sometimes violent..

    Examples of this is where an otherwise polite person will, abuse a companies switchboard operator, just for asking the persons name while transfering a call.
    Or when talking to a person you are having a dispute with, a settlement is easily reached.. but place a length of copper in between and the the conversation becomes a heated argument..

    The same goes for forum sites like this.. Vis some threads of only this week.. place a computer and a few hundred miles of copper and glass between two people and the effect is the same..


    Why is this so? your thoughts here please..
    I have a few starter areas of my own..

    1/ Lack of eye contact: people are unable to trust and are angered easily by people they can't make eye contact with (more phone than internet)
    2/ A security by obscurity : You don't realy know who I am, you cant see me .. My Identity is obscure and you won't be able to retaliate
    3/ Security by copper: (Castle wall Effect) I have 100km of copper between you and me.. so you cant hurt me.

    It seems many of us have either been the Agressor or the agresee or both in this sort of incedent.. certainly I have been both..

    So any other thoughts..

    Cheers
    "Consumer technology now exceeds the average persons ability to comprehend how to use it..give up hope of them being able to understand how it works." - Me http://www.cybercrypt.co.nr

  2. #2
    AO Veteran NeuTron's Avatar
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    People feel a whole lot more confident and intimidating when there is no possible way for the other end to retaliate. You can scream all you want and if the other end screams you hang up, end of quarrel. Its very cowardly and is usually done by people who have low self esteem in the "actual" physical world.
    -NeuTron

  3. #3
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    The consequences of one's actions are not immediate if at all. When the consequences of one's actions are completely removed, courage is limitless.
    West of House
    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
    There is a small mailbox here.

  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    I think that the lack of body language down the wire is partly to blame...........people use language differently. Face-to-face you read the other person's body language and don't take offence, you find out what they really mean?

    It's a bit like a dog barking............if you can see the tail wagging you are not bothered? (you mentioned the dog analogy first )

    Just a thought.

  5. #5
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    There is another type of courage I have run into. Not really related but, how many have notice the phenomena I call "Beer Courage"
    West of House
    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
    There is a small mailbox here.

  6. #6
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
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    yeah
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.

  7. #7
    Disgruntled Postal Worker fourdc's Avatar
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    Back in the citizen's band radio days we used to refer to it has having 300 pounds of bad radio. These people were " gonna kick everybody's ass". Some of them would be stupid enough and buy those antennas with neon tips that would light up when they transmitted. You'd find out that the really bad trucker was some runt in a suburu b210.
    ddddc

    "Somehow saying I told you so just doesn't cover it" Will Smith in I, Robot

  8. #8
    Priapistic Monk KorpDeath's Avatar
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    Copper wire courage is synonymos with "road rage", "beer goggles", etc. If it puts anything between you and your inhibitions it has the same effect....who hasn't experienced this and what's the point of bringing it up in this forum????

    It begs the question .... who is a closet psychoanalyst??
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
    - Samuel Johnson

  9. #9
    Senior Member
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    ok Kd, who?
    Trappedagainbyperfectlogic.

  10. #10
    Senior Member
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    Some of us are very use to arguing with sarcasm, this fails horribly online do to the lack of visual and audio clues, what is meant as tong and cheek come across as sincere, and that escalates matters. Oh and never overlook the fact that some of us may be a--holes in RL as well as online
    Who is more trustworthy then all of the gurus or Buddha’s?

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