The Question Game

[Jubatus]

I hereby propose a question game with the hopeful intent of bringing about enlightenment through one's own answers as the questions go deeper and deeper towards the source of a given phenom, be it psychological, biological, historical or otherwise.

 

I'll explain the basics and set up a few rules. It goes like this: I make a statement to which I ask why it is so, then the next poster answers that why and then asks a why to his own answer, and then the next and so on till we're satisfied we've reached the basic source (Though it can already be argued that the creation of the Universe might be the basest main source to everything we might come up with, but we can try still and see where we go - it is but a sporting game for the brain).

 

An example I've tried with some friends of mine, though I never presented it as a question game, I just picked up on their statement:

 

Friend: Jubatus, get a job, you're too lazy.

 

I: Why am I lazy?

 

F: Because you don't wanna work (and here I don't point out to him that he's merely (somewhat) defining laziness, I just move on from his rephrasing).

 

I: Why don't I wanna work?

 

F: I dunno!

 

And that's as far as I get with them, and I don't care to press it anymore because they don't care to play the game.

 

The point of me asking them these questions leading further and further to the source of my laziness is for them to discover themselves why I'm lazy through their own answers, i.e. make them think it through themselves.

 

Now for the rules:

 

- Only one string of questions at a time - we only work one string till we're satisfied we're at the source.

 

- Although highly subjectible as to definition, try as you can to only answer with a single link in a string even though you could in one fell strike trace several steps back towards the source, and try not to make big jumps in the form of an all-overshadowing source, e.g. Q: Why did we go to the Moon? A: Evolution.

 

- Answers can be contested, and if you do so, just write your own answer to the respective question (signify by quoting), and don't state why you think the other answer wrong, just let him/her read yours and s/he might or mightn't agree. This is so the game can flow on. The next in line can move on from whichever answer of the 2 (or more) he favours and ignore the other(s), and it moves on from there with no further referring to the contesting answers. This might be frustrating to some whose answers are ignored, but again it's just a game.

 

- Anyone that answers with a reason to a prior question in a string can nominate the string at an satisfactory end - if 2 additional participants of the game concur we move on to another string initiated by whomever cares to. If 2 won't concur to the string being satisfactorily ended that string moves on - and even if 2 does concur another can still interject with a veto if s/he is strongly of the oppinion that the string can be justifiably continued.

 

Now, since we're not all here continiously 24 hrs a day there can occur interweaving of strings and if so, so be it - it's just a brain exercise.

 

It can get quite difficult to get this game running smoothly due to aforementioned subjectivity, and some might argue that this is just a bad excuse for post counts, but I would like to think the regulars of the Senate beyond such ambitions; look at myself: Only 330ish posts in well over an year - that should speak clearly enough for me not being a post count monger.

 

The main reason for this game is to promote deeper thinking about issues many people just dismiss with a single comment, like with my friends merely calling me lazy without questioning the deeper reasons behind it, and also with more serious issues like for instance with my father; when he watches the news on TV and sees yet another killing spree in the Middle East he just goes "They're all crazy...", and I loathe how he just settles at that and doesn't go on to question himself why they might act like they do in that region.

 

But let's get the ball rolling:

 

Many people are arachnophobic.

 

Why? (Remember, small steps towards the source.)

[The Seeker]

Because spiders are about the creepiest thing on earth.

 

Why?

[matt--]

This will just end up being another spammy game thread with a thousand replies and no topic.

 

So what do we do about it?