Reply To: KTCRIM – Keep the CR Interesting Movement

I think yekke2 has really hit the nail on the head here. One of the key problems with many debates is that they end up with an intelligent majority agreeing vociferously, whilst those, shall we say, less sensical posters who began in opposition either moderate their views or cease to oppose the unopposable. Case in point, the Smartphone thread, which ended up with the rather unedifying spectacle of numerous people seeming to disagree, but not actually diverting in any respect. This then evolves into the inevitable nitpicking and/or slow slide into obscurity.

So perhaps what is required is more balanced contentious issues on which the consensus is less obvious. I shamelessly attempted to artificially create such a discussion in the shape of the Abusers thread, in the vain hope that this would lead to a real, interesting involving discussion. To a certain extent, I think this worked. But even on this topical, controversial issue, a consensus soon emerged. So what I shall term the Y2 Conundrum remained unresolved.

But that got me thinking. Why should the Coffee Room be relegated to a noisy debating chamber? Not that I am insinuating this is the case, if anything this is self-criticism. As the name suggests, this is the online version of the fabled Coffee Room, that mystical place found in many a shul, yeshiva, staffroom or office, where, if one is lucky, that rarest of things, the perfect ‘shmooze’, may emerge. And, perhaps, just perhaps, The true spirit of the fledgling KTCRIM would not be to inspire merely debate, but to capture the spirit of a shmooze. The witty repartee, the rich vignette of humour, anecdotes, stories, views, politics, and of course, the occasional foray into the metaphorical aforementioned chamber. Perhaps this is the secret of the CR of yesteryear, where the main objective was not to persuade, argue, anger, provoke and/or preach, but to entertain. This is the key behind many of the most successful, enduring threads. The Harry Potter thread, the Shidduch Stories thread, the Riddle thread. All instances where the driving force is the desire to not just converse, but to enjoy oneself in the process. Of course, for the most part, this is already the case. But as an ethos, it could spur the CR onto ever greater planes.