Pissing contests

[Chaigidel]

or what do you think is the source of the need for people to cling to various symbols and ideas and then rabidly defend them to the point of insanity

as we have seen in so many of our ultra nationalist russian, turkish, amd american brothers; and religious members obviously--- what is it or where does it come from this need in a person to fight for belief, to somehow defend the idea as if it is a living thing needing to be cultured?

in otherwords what is the source of the pissing contest more than simple competition how do these things stir the primal need to mark territory and fight it out?

discuss.

[Exarch]

i guess it comes down to our human instinctual tribalistic natures.
like ur natural affinity with kin, or blood relations, ppl get all prissy whenever their favourite footy club, country, political party gets criticized.
i also suppose in the case of religion, ppl feel it is something'holy' and should be 'untouched' by criticisms.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

psychic fear of dissolution of the self that is remedied through uniformity in personal and social regiments and abstractions (which often reside in symbols).

That's the answer in a nutshell.

[icydawgfish]

I admit that I tend to do this all the time concerning my religious and political beliefs. It's hard to explain but the best I can describe it is that there is an urge to defend something you believe stongly in no matter what.

[Ummagumma]

Compensating for something..

[Richard]

The thread title is misleading. I thought it was going to be about whether urinating competitions are ethical or something. It has nothing to do with pissing contests at all.

[Gary88]

some people enter a debate thinking, what can i do to show i am right and what crap will these idiots spout at me.

some people think, what is there that shows i am (at least in part) correct, how do i know i am correct and how confident am i, am i capable of defending my views., how will i respond to what they say, how will it affect my view and what should i do with information they show.

most people are somewhere between the two on a sliding scale. then you have religious nuts who dont debate they scream their ideas at you and ignore yours.

[rathelios]

what is the source of the pissing contest?

Youth.
They'll either grow out of it or die young.

[Roman Knight]

Imagine you'd built your life on a religious belief (that from an outside view looks crazy) and someone started telling you that you were wrong, to accept defeat would be to deatory your life,