I'm not going to dictate what you ought to and ought not to care about. My only charge is that you'd be wrong to brush off my argument on the grounds that there are not any present laws strictly prohibiting vocal expression during so-called "moments of silence". Keep on struggling to subvert the debate and drown all dissension in a sea of irrelevancy, though. Personally, I find SATCHMO's method of wedging one's way out of conceding erroneousness through utter buffoonery far more effective.

Oh, you had an argument?

...

maybe I shouldn't have told you to keep on with that.

if this is a major stumbling block in your personal development you WILL have a very hard time dealing with the realities of being an independent adult.

whether or not you agree to it is irrelevant. your ability to shut the hole on your face for a minute is.

seriously, enjoy your mcjob because no one will hire you to do anything more significant than flipping a burger with that attitude.

haha that's what i was thinking :laughing:

My decision to employ such "buffoonery" was based on the futility of trying to communicate a simple concept to someone who all out refuses to listen.

We understand the principle that you should not be forced to do anything you don't want to, but hey the next time the situation comes up go ahead and make an ass out of yourself by refusing to show the modicum of respect and maturity that is being called for and see if you find that the people in your surroundings are any less or more sympathetic to your principles than we are.

This thread is an example of how selfish people can be. "Why should I give a dead person a minutes silence when I don't even know/care about them?" - it's one freaking minute. If you can't allow one minute of your precious 1440 minutes of your day to think about someone else that had personal experiences that you could learn from/admire, then you've got serious issues. It's nice to care about what other people have fought for, accomplished, or suffered because of, because it helps you find peace within yourself and how you live your life. Problems you have might not seem so bad in retrospect to those who have died.

But whatever, if you want to have your precious minute then I hope it's good for you.

After looking through this thread in the light of morning I just have to say the level of hyperbole in Wayfarer's posters is pretty hilarious.

Jesus ****ing christ. I've explained my reasoning and whi i think this is wrong and i've certainly highlighted that it goes beyond me not being able to shut up for a couple of minutes.

There we are. A fairly intelligent argument that goes beyond 'u r so stupid u shud kep ure trahp sht 4 2 minits lool 11!1!11!' . I see what you're saying here but i still have to disagree.

Ok i don't know why i'm bothering with this still, BUT. Say i agree with 9/11, i think it was a just cause and i have absolutely no sympathy/respect for those who died. Now, why should i have to....you know what forget it i cba with this nonsense i've put my cards on the table, if you still refuse to read them and ignorantly dub it as selfishness then thats your call.

Sorry if it seemed like an insult, maybe "buffoonery" wasn't the best word to use. Wasn't intended as a shot at you or anything, if that's the impression you were getting.

At least somebody gets it.

Seems like nearly everyone in this thread is completely missing the point. I never claimed to be (and as far as I know, Gareth Brown never claimed to be) wholly unwilling to remain silent for a minute to commemorate the life of a lost one, I've only asserted that it would be wrong to enforce such "moments of silence". Additionally, the "selfish" argument could be made both ways. Sure, it might be indicative of rather self-centered thinking were someone to refuse to donate a single minute of their time to another, but it is not just as selfish, if not moreso, to expect everyone to go out of their way for you, even if it is only for a minute, to memorialize someone that they may or may not have liked or respected; that they may or may not have even known or given a rat's arse about? It would be especially selfish to want such behaviour enforced.

Also, let's revisit the first post I made in this thread. I was playing the clown, sure, but there was also a point made there and I never did get a proper response to it.

"Aren't 'moments of silence'...kind of ****ing stupid to begin with? What's the magic in not saying anything for a minute? I lay still, relatively quietly, for eight or so hours a night. There's an abundance of silent moments to commemorate all the lives of your dead relatives that I don't care about right there. It's just some idiotic tradition that doesn't mean anything, y'know, like taking off your hat when the national anthem is played. What's the point?"

One thing I'd imagine most who are laying in their death beds to be thinking is how they wish they'd done more in life, "seized the day", yeah? And we commemorate that by standing around in silence, not doing anything? Why, that's almost as bad as commemorating the resurrection of Jesus by telling our children a giant bunny rabbit broke into the house at night and scattered chocolate eggs all about. We really are a ****ed up species.