I Have Nothing To Say

[Grandstander]

With a nod to Marshall McLuhan, I think that it is important that we keep in mind that it isn't so much what skrable doesn't say, so much as it is the way in which he does not say it.

[phenweigh]

"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about."
-- Oscar Wilde

[skrable]

oscar wilde was a know-nothing. i would have told him that myself, but i didn't want to waste my breath

[Grandstander]

This thread has inspired my new sig.

[phenweigh]

Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore benefit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.

Lao-Tse

[SugarBaby]

Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Carrying a dead man's shield
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
Walkin' with a toothache in my heel.

Modern Times, Bob Dylan

[skrable]

Nuthin from nuthin leaves

[dlb]

What is nothing? Is it, as the Buddhists, say, everything - the fundamental emptiness at the root of all being that makes all things empty of existence in their own right? Or, as Western philosophy would have it, is nothing the absence of all things and therefore incapable of being the source of anything?

Or, taking physical reality into consideration (as indeed we must), is nothing simply that space between things? If so, when we consider Einsteinian conceptions of space, not to mention quantum notions of gravity, can we say that nothing exists - that despite all appearances, there is always something?

And since we are saying, we must consider the ideas that come to us from the field of linguistics and its associated philosophers. For example, if Wittegenstein is correct in asserting that reality, as experienced by humans, is words and words alone, then when we say nothing, are we not saying something? Or, as the old saying has it, does our silence speak volumes?

The assumptions from which we proceed when we endeavor to say nothing, then, are the critical context which must be examined in order to understand what we're saying, or not. If we agree with the Buddhists, saying nothing may be a sublime expression of the most important truth. From the traditional Western point of view, however, to say nothing is simply that - to say nothing. While considered in the context of physical reality, nothing might be best considered as something that lies between other somethings. And of course, from the linguistic perspective, to say nothing is to divorce oneself from reality, while to say "nothing" is to most certainly say something.

Finally, I would suggest that there are various approaches to saying nothing. One might say nothing by simply saying nothing. However, I think we can all point to examples of people who, though saying quite a bit, have said nothing.

[Grandstander]

dlb:

However, I think we can all point to examples of people who, though saying quite a bit, have said nothing.

With the exceptions of the contributions of musical lyrics, and yourself, no other poster has felt the need to post anything longer than a single sentence in any post in this thread.

So, among all of us here, which of us seems to best fit your above description?

[dlb]

I should think that quite obvious and quite intentionally so.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by dlb

I should think that quite obvious and quite intentionally so.

Oh. Well, at least you have established that you can also say nothing in a brief manner.

[heyterry]

?

[bigheadache]

I forgot what I was going to say.