Oxymoron! 5

[UniqueFD]

Is 'Doing Nothing' an oxymoron?"

The original context for this question is that I have been asked what I'd like to do tonight and replied, "I've been so busy lately, I'd like to do nothing".

Can I actively do nothing? I would appreciate some feedback on this. If, in thinking around the subject, you find some other amusing/infuriating oxymorons, please share them!!!

(Also, I just think the word is great - OXYMORON!! )

Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[SantaMufasa]

Here are my ABCs of Oxymorons:

ACCORDION MUSIC
ACCURATE ESTIMATE
ACUTE DULLNESS
ACT NATURALLY
ACTIVE RETIREMENT
ADULT MALE
ADVANCED BEGINNER
AGING YUPPIE
AIRLINE FOOD
ALMOST CERTAIN
ALONE TOGETHER
AMERICAN BEER
AMISH TECHNOLOGY
AMTRAK SCHEDULE
APPROXIMATELY EQUAL
ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP
BABY GRAND
BAD HEALTH
BALDING HAIR
BEST OF MARIAH CAREY
BIG SIP
BIGGER HALF
BRIEF LEGAL DESCRIPTION
BRIGHT SHADE
BUTT-HEAD
CARNIVOROUS VEGETARIAN
CHEAP GAS
CHEERLEADING SCHOLARSHIP
CHILDPROOF
CIVIL LIBERTARIAN
CIVIL WAR
CLASSIC ROCK & ROLL
CLEARLY MISUNDERSTOOD
CLINTON LEADERSHIP
COED FRATERNITY (OR SORORITY)
COMFORTABLE THONG
COMMON SENSE
CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS
CROWDED ROOM

I doubt anyone wants the D-Zs.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[sleipnir214]

I doubt anyone wants the D-Zs.

Sure we do. But post it as a FAQ.


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[spewn]

can not.

- g

 

[jebenson]

What's wrong with ACCORDION MUSIC, Santa? Doesn't everybody love to Polka?



I used to rock and roll every night and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find 30 minutes a week in which to get funky. - Homer Simpson

 

[flapeyre]

sophomore (means "wise fool")

Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!

 

[craigsboyd]

spewn,

I cannot say that I have ever thought of "can not" as an oxymoron. Thanks. Has me thinking about: are, is, have, had, has, were, should, could, would, etc. when used in conjunction with "not".

jebenson,
A big raspberry for you and your political oxymoron. <bg>

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[AnotherHiggins]

Question: Can I actively do nothing?

The Literalist’s Answer: Only if your body temperature is lowered to absolute zero. Only then can you truly be 'at rest'.

The Idealist's Answer: If you want. But if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

The Pessimist’s/Marvin the Android's Answer: You might as well. Nothing you do will make any difference anyway.

The Overly-Supportive Parent's Answer: Just so long as you do nothing to the best of your ability!

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue]
[/tt][red]"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."[/red]
-Mitch Hedberg

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.

 

[SteveGlo]

In addition to John's Literalist answer I would ask whether you can only be doing nothing if there is someone there to observe you doing it.

Nothing, like zero is a very useful abstraction - if
nothing else it circumvents a lot of otherwise clumsy speech construction - but whether or not you can
do it?

This is the sort of question that needs a Zen mystic to deliberate over for about 40 years - I'll get back to you.

 

[kalistoh]

The Overly-Supportive Parent..

or how about The Overly-Suspicious Parent -

Parent: (catching a kid doing something they shouldn't be doing) What are you doing?
Kid: (frantically trying to cover up what ever it was they were doing) Nothin'

they never beleive you though...

she who destroys the light

 

[Dimandja]

For me to "do nothing" is not possible. What is possible is "do something specific".

When people say they are "doing nothing", what they really mean is, for example:

1. They are not mowing the lawn.
2. They are not going to Little League.
3. They are not doing any of the usual chores.

However, they could be watching TV, or reading, or napping. These are considered passive activities that don't count as "doing something".

 

[columb]

But as the old Yorkshire man once said

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.

Columb Healy

 

[UniqueFD]

Dimandja,
I'm confused...

You can "do" nothing. You can not listen. You can not think. But you must "actively" refrain from doing those things.

For me to "do nothing" is not possible.

Can you 'do nothing' or not? And therefore, is 'Doing Nothing' an Oxymoron or not?


Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[SteveGlo]

I think thst unless you are not doing (the class of all possible activities) you are still doing something (even if it is only decomposing)- as anotherhiggins said in his Literalist answer.

Just sitting and thinking must be considered as doing something which is where some managers go wrong when they see their staff apparently doing nothing.

 

[jsteph]

From Wikepedia:

Nothing is the lack or absence of anything. "Nothing" and "zero" are closely related but not identical concepts. The term "nothing" is rarely used mathematically, though it could be said that a set contains nothing if and only if it is the empty set, in which case its cardinality (or size) is zero. Nothing differs from zero in the way that zero is something, a finite amount which is defined. While nothing overlaps the quantity zero, in the way that it also is, when finitely defined, zero, it differs in the way that it has no specific basis like zero does in numbers.

The concept of "nothing" has been studied throughout history by philosophers and theologians; many have found that careful consideration of the notion can easily lead to the logical fallacy of reification. The understanding of "nothing" varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions, though existentialism, and in particular Heidegger have brought the understandings closer together.

Informally, a person, event or object might be said to be nothing if particularly unimpressive.

--JIm

 

[CajunCenturion]

Another perspective on nothing.

Those who have been around a while may remember the punch cars. The information is encoded by where the punches are. A punch card reader would read the card by detecting which parts of the card did not exist, i.e., where the holes were. It was the nothing that contained the data.

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[UniqueFD]

Dave (aka Santa),

Have you seriously got a list? If So, I'd LOVE to see it all! (I've had such a good laugh reading the posts already in this thread !) If you don't fancy setting up a FAQ (as Sleipnir214 suggested) you can e-mail me: my handle at ntlworlddotcom.



Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[TheRambler]

>It was the nothing that contained the data.

Interesting, reminds me of The Nature of Usefulness or The Utility of Non-existence from the Tao Te Ching:

Though thirty spokes may form the wheel,
it is the hole within the hub
which gives the wheel utility.
It is not the clay the potter throws,
which gives the pot its usefulness,
but the space within the shape,
from which the pot is made.
Without a door, the room cannot be entered,
and without windows it is dark.
Such is the utility of non-existence.

Translated by Stan Rosenthal. Others prefer the words void, emptiness, non-being... I rather don't do anything about it.

 

[Dimandja]

>Can you 'do nothing' or not? And therefore, is 'Doing Nothing' an Oxymoron or not?

My second post seems to contradict my first one. But in reality it is expounding on the first one. Mainly by being more specific about what "do nothing" really means.

After entering into a zen contemplation, I decided that "do nothing" is not possible, because you always "do something" -- even if furiously coming up with excuses not to mow the lawn. Unless you are comatose (and even this is up for debate), you necessarily "do something" all the time.

So, is "do nothing" a oxymoron? No, because "do" is not the opposite (nor does it negate) "nothing". It should be possible to "do nothing" as soon as we can define "nothing".

"Do nothing" is a myth, or a misrepresentation of facts, not an oxymoron.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Dimandja,

Aren't all oxymorons, to a degree, a misrepresentation of facts, a mutually exclusive condition in which if you have "one" it excludes the "other"?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[UniqueFD]

Dimandja
I agree. You cannot 'litterally' do nothing. It is a turn of phrase which sparked a debate in my mind and I offered for argument (and a bit of fun on the side).

The leap my mind took was to consider Doing implies action and Nothing implies inaction, which would indeed negate and therefore constitute an oxymoron.

Is this a stretch too far, especially considering some of the alternatives posted above? I remain unconvinced.

Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)