Week #3 Question #2

*Consider the pragmatic perspective. Does it make sense to think of communication as patterned interaction? How is communication like a game? How is it different from a game?*

When I read the section on pragmatic perspective in the text I immediately thought back to my years of congressional debate competition in the state of Florida. What the book describes as an apparent "chess game of communication" is actually a very accurate depiction of debate itself. There were countless times I, or one of my teammates, would unknowingly fall into a trap created by a debate opponent only to watch our argument slowly crumble away due to one miss step...a counted on miss step none the less. After my first year of debate competition I began to realize that a cutthroat attitude was necessary in order to succeed (or even just get called to speak)...in other words I really needed to get my head in the game. I eventually found that by using logic I was able to often confuse an opponent and get them to vocally commit to some fact or figure which in reality is the bomb meant to sink their boat. In order to do this, however, you yourself must be very ready with exceptional factual knowledge of the topic at hand and any others which may tie into it because as a debater you must always be aware...and you must catch your opponent unaware.
While communication is very much like a game there are also noticeable differences. The first and most apparent difference is that in a game, once the game is over, that's it...it's over. There are no true worldly consequences other than the loss of bragging rights till the next game. In communication, however, the results of the communication game have very real consequences and repercussions and can themselves be the reason for great change. Another difference is that in a game the rules are normally always set and must be followed a certain way. In the communication game, however, the rules constantly change based on the statements made by the previous person (for example: In a debate one's family and family history may seem obviously off limits...but if an opponent makes comments regarding your family that are false then all bets are off and it's time for the gloves to come off too) and the rules themselves change from culture to culture. While Monopoly is played the exact same way around the world the communication game has many many different ways to play it.