In a previous blog post about the relation between contradictions and aggression we suggested that on-going paradoxical messages could affect a person’s mental health. Also, contradictions, if not noticed, can lead to feelings of powerlessness and furious destructive aggression. The title of this post is such a contradiction or a paradox.
Some of our readers have asked for some more examples or contradictions. Here are some that we collected over years. we admit that it needs some thinking effort to fathom the double meaning of some.
So, don’t read this. . .*&^#Grrrgrr”#^&*
- Jim: “I don’t mean anything with this”. Suzy: “What do you mean with that? Jim: Nothing”. Suzy: “*&^#Grrrrgrr#^&*
- A protester carries a sign above his head, saying: “Against protest”.
- A check player to his opponent: “Afterwards we should decide who shall start?”
- “My task is to teach you something, and your task is to listen”, a professor says to his students, and continues, ” If you are finished listening, please tell me so I can stop teaching.”
- A Neanderthal man had just invented the wheel, when a passing fellow tribesman asked him: “But how do you kill enemies with that thing?”
- Mother: “I think sex is dangerous and dirty, but I like it when a boy gives my daughter his attention.”
- Same mother: “Sons should be polite and tidy, but I love when they are rude and rowdy.”
- Sam to Peter: ” Every time I ask you something, you deny it”. Peter (irritated): “Of course not!” Sam: “Look at you, you’re getting angry “. Peter: “You are really mad, aren’t you?” Sam: “I said so, you are really aggressive”.
- Here in our community we have only one rule and that is that there are no rules. . .
- A waitress in a restaurant says to a customer: ” If you have any complaints about the staff, you should talk with the boss’s wife”.
- Carl: ” I prefer not to put forward any of my ideas”.
- Wife to husband: ” You never give me flowers if I don’t ask for it”.
- “If you are really powerful”, said the Devil to God, ” then make a boulder so huge you can’t lift it up”.
- Boss at an employee: ” That’s what made our company great. You suggest ideas, and I shoot them off”.
- A wife shows her just coiffed hair to her lover: “Do you like it?”. Lover: “It’s beautiful”. Wife: “Didn’t like you my previous hairstyle?” Lover: “Yes, sure!”. Wife: “But now not any longer?” And on and on until eternity. . .
The examples above are funny but quite seriously. . .*&^#Grrrgrr”#^&*
Paradoxical messages can seriously paralyze human relations and even lead to schizophrenic behavior. However, at the same time paradoxical communication can also be used to jolt someone out of his current mindset. An interesting subject for another post.