Modern Morals: Middle Class Dilemmas
Aug. 26th, 2008 05:42 pmThe times had a feature called "Modern Morals", since replaced (I think? I may have the paper wrong) with a similar feature, "Middle Class Dilemma". The idea being someone writes in with a dilemma, and there is a response. It is often amusing, or mildly interesting.
It is also often incredibly infuriating. It follows the venerable pattern of:
* Choose a reasonable response to the question
* Explain it
* Patronisingly use rhetorical techniques to mock anyone who disagrees
Unsurprisingly, I often find intensely aggravating the implicit insult to anyone who considered any other nuances of the original question and preferred any of the other reasonable responses. It feels like an example of "Well, I'm not sure my aim's right, so I'm going to hit harder and harder to make up for it."
The question is, why is it annoying to me, when I appreciate some rants whether I think they're comprehensively accurate or not (eg. Ben Yahtzee Croshaw: Zero Punctuation, Maddox: "The Best Page in the Universe")?
Is it that it's less angry (and so less obviously not completely serious)? Or just less funny? Or is it that I might feel targeted by it?
It is also often incredibly infuriating. It follows the venerable pattern of:
* Choose a reasonable response to the question
* Explain it
* Patronisingly use rhetorical techniques to mock anyone who disagrees
Unsurprisingly, I often find intensely aggravating the implicit insult to anyone who considered any other nuances of the original question and preferred any of the other reasonable responses. It feels like an example of "Well, I'm not sure my aim's right, so I'm going to hit harder and harder to make up for it."
The question is, why is it annoying to me, when I appreciate some rants whether I think they're comprehensively accurate or not (eg. Ben Yahtzee Croshaw: Zero Punctuation, Maddox: "The Best Page in the Universe")?
Is it that it's less angry (and so less obviously not completely serious)? Or just less funny? Or is it that I might feel targeted by it?