Having had a few days away from the Mudcat with a computer away from repairs I've been skimming through the threads.

And it's set me thinking how it is that, for a lot of people, there seems to be an irresistible link between having an argument and having a quarrel. As if, unless it gets bad tempered, there is no point in exchanging opinion sand expressing disagreements.

On the one hand you have this tendency for discussions to turn hostile and insulting - especially anything to do with politics or religion, but also topics about which you wouldn't believe anybody could raise the temperature. (Not just on the Mudcat - I have two friends who got into a physical fight over what key was appropriate for some type of music, and they still avoid each other's company months later.)

And on the other hand you have people who think that the connection between argument and quarrelling is so inevitable that the best thing to do is to avoid argument entirely, or restrict it to topics where it is hoped there is no room for quarrels - which of course is a vain hope.

And that's a bit like trying to avoid excess noise by imposing a rule of silence.

Myself, I think that arguing is one of the great pleasures of life, and that turning it into a quarrel destroys that pleasure.