Those paragraphs were there from the beginning, but I know how it goes with starting an answer before finishing reading a longer post.
Okay. Now, it seems that we have a sort of split action here. There are two aspects to insults. One, the impact on the recipient. Two, the impact on society at large (in the person of Miss Manners). You call the second one a harm to humanity.
I can go with this. With regard to the person to whom the remark is addressed, if there is no harm taken, there is no insult to that person. No harm taken can be from lack of understanding the insult, or lack of understanding that it is an insult, or recognition that it was intended as an insult but refusing to consider it as such.
So with regard to the speaker and addressee, there is no completed insult until it is submitted and received as such.
But for others who may be participants -- other posters here on SI, or others at the dinner table, or those to whom the incident may be reported -- even if the recipient wasn't insulted, society at large can be insulted.
Am I on the right track here?? |
