I'm working on a rebuttal to a reply to something I wrote about corporate purpose and I'm having a really hard time getting the tone right.
Donald Dripps once told me (back when we were both at Illinois) that in these situations one must go for the jugular. One must win. I wonder if he still feels that way (tag, you're up).
That seems both unpleasant and exhausting. I'm at a point in my career where if it's not fun, I'm not doing it.
So I just want to amuse myself and perhaps the reader, while still taking the subject seriously.
I want to be respectful of the opponent (who is a friend and has made some very good points), but I also want to be somewhat lighthearted and witty. Sort of like Bertie Wooster in his narrator voice (not his character voice) discussing corporate purpose at the Drones Cub.
It's turning out to be damned hard work and I may end up punting. But it'd be nice if there turns out to be a space for witty banter in serious scholarship.
