About Those People Who Want the Last Word

Let them have it as they go un-merrily on their way

Bryan Craddock

Have you ever been in a conversation and realized whatever you said the other person has to one-up you in some way? This can be a mild exchange or a mild argument — from your perspective. But it becomes clear after a bit that they see you and your words as some kind of challenge, even a combative one. Why?

Generally, you become a challenge to their belief they are right — a belief they are not willing to alter.

So you decide to counter for a while, for your own sense of being right, too, until you notice they are not listening to you. Their entire focus is on establishing their own supremacy in the discussion.

This becomes very obvious if the conversation occurs via email or texting, where clarity of purpose and the evocation of deep thought are usually irrelevant. These methods lend themselves beautifully to people who want to have the last word, because they will add comments about how wrong you are until you stop replying to them, allowing them thereby to have the last word.

For people who cannot let go of their point of view, who may resort to saying unpleasant things if you do not agree with them, who may even lash out in messages (easier than addressing you face to face for them) — these people are unconscious of…