Saturday, February 09, 2008

confabulate.

verb
1.
unconsciously replace fact with fantasy in one's memory
2.
talk socially without exchanging too much information; "the men were sitting in the cafe and shooting the breeze"

i like words. i have been criticised for using long ones occasionally when short ones would do, but i disagree. sometimes the longer ones have meaning that the short ones don`t.

and i enjoy the ambiguity.

sort of........

i was reminded of the word confabulate in a discussion with david jacobs, an investigator into the reports by some of alien abductions.

he felt that the majority of reports contained confabulations.

i have news for david.

all reports of human behaviour contain confabulations.

and the subsequent analysis.

and so to politics.

or, the leading of the lambs to the slaughter.........(again.)

8 comments:

BBC said...

There is often people that read my blog that wouldn't know what the big words mean so I avoid them.

I'm not trying to prove to the world that I'm smart just because I know big words.

Some of the greatest speakers and leaders in history also stuck with simple words.

Many people that read blogs struggle with understanding simple english and can easily misunderstand what you are trying to say.

Blogs of course are just fucking around anyway so maybe it doesn't make any difference.

Dr.Alistair said...

ok, so here it is, the gospel according to me;

www.idontgiveafuckwhatanyonepersonthinks.com

follow that link for all the explanation you will need.

big words, small words, medium sized words....whatever it takes to bring out the true nature of the reader.

Dr.Alistair said...

exactly my point.

and i`m not smart because i occasionally use a big word or two.

X. Dell said...

Interesting point. When confabulation occurs in a number of human recollections, is there good reason to single one subject area as such? In other words, are some types of naratives more conducive to confabulation than other?

Dr.Alistair said...

i think that certain areas of discussion maintain or support confabulation precicely because of the occult nature of the subject.

alien abduction claims being one of these subjects.

cultural support for types of confabulation is a pressure that comes to bear in certain cases, like abduction, or relationships between men and women for example.

or politics.

confabulation is also held in semantics.

using absolutes in statements such as john "is" a dickhead tends to hold the thinking of those accepting the statement. whereas, saying that john "could quite possibly be" a dickhead allows the flow of thought.

"all men are assholes" is a statement held comfortably in some circles.

the censorship of political correctness and of scientific proof can become holding mechanisms also.

this all goes back to what p.d.ouspensky says about being asleep, we can`t distinguish between confabulation and truth for so many reasons.

in p.d.o`s book, a theory of man`s possible evolution he suggests that we exists in a walking sleep state and that for moments we awaken,only to fall back to sleep quickly to exist in a dream/fear state.

Dr.Alistair said...

i think that certain areas of discussion maintain or support confabulation precicely because of the occult nature of the subject.

alien abduction claims being one of these subjects.

cultural support for types of confabulation is a pressure that comes to bear in certain cases, like abduction, or relationships between men and women for example.

or politics.

confabulation is also held in semantics.

using absolutes in statements such as john "is" a dickhead tends to hold the thinking of those accepting the statement. whereas, saying that john "could quite possibly be" a dickhead allows the flow of thought.

"all men are assholes" is a statement held comfortably in some circles.

the censorship of political correctness and of scientific proof can become holding mechanisms also.

this all goes back to what p.d.ouspensky says about being asleep, we can`t distinguish between confabulation and truth for so many reasons.

in p.d.o`s book, a theory of man`s possible evolution he suggests that we exists in a walking sleep state and that for moments we awaken,only to fall back to sleep quickly to exist in a dream/fear state.

Anonymous said...

Cool word.

Dr.Alistair said...

yeah, it describes a lot of human behaviour..