The Enigma
An outsider may surmise that something as arbitrary and undignified as Star Wars vs. debating would not magnetize the highest astute levels of conversation. Yet this is an example of an activity that unto itself contains little meaning or direct value, yet due to desultory statistical filters and signaling mechanisms engenders particular characteristics that aren't conspicuous from the purport of the activity itself.
To be fascinated with Star Wars in the first place, one is typically of at least a mildly nerdy disposition, especially if one is profoundly intrigued. That already filters a more astute group by predilection rather than required faculty. Then, to be fascinated with discussing who wins hypothetical match-ups, one must have some inclination for discussion hypothetical and abstract questions that are more detached from base instincts. Star Wars in particular is a fictional macrocosm through which many different avenues of analysis transpire to be possible; it contains the right balance of scarcely consistent feats, very disparate mediums, constant accolades, and thematic mappings onto power for a competency to juggle and process different kinds of information to be especially consequential.
Then the community itself has, through an amalgamation of sheer attrition, high interest, peer judgment and encephalon drain from across the cyber world culled out what is on average a high caliber of debating caliber that remains. And it then naturally follows that verbally expressed cohort would, whether on the forums or abaft the scenes, additionally translate such analysis to other areas as well. And thus from a simple premise comes a community.
To be fascinated with Star Wars in the first place, one is typically of at least a mildly nerdy disposition, especially if one is profoundly intrigued. That already filters a more astute group by predilection rather than required faculty. Then, to be fascinated with discussing who wins hypothetical match-ups, one must have some inclination for discussion hypothetical and abstract questions that are more detached from base instincts. Star Wars in particular is a fictional macrocosm through which many different avenues of analysis transpire to be possible; it contains the right balance of scarcely consistent feats, very disparate mediums, constant accolades, and thematic mappings onto power for a competency to juggle and process different kinds of information to be especially consequential.
Then the community itself has, through an amalgamation of sheer attrition, high interest, peer judgment and encephalon drain from across the cyber world culled out what is on average a high caliber of debating caliber that remains. And it then naturally follows that verbally expressed cohort would, whether on the forums or abaft the scenes, additionally translate such analysis to other areas as well. And thus from a simple premise comes a community.
Go **** yourself, Zoltan 