The tendency of which I speak is one where the person who desires the face-to-face is playing a psychological game. A game in which the rules change based on the person’s body language opposite them. Do you know this game?

It’s very crafty and difficult to play. However, once it has been mastered, one’s ability to deflect meaningful confrontation makes him almost politically invincible…

[Now as]  to the face-to-face game.

In this game, the objective is simple: never commit to anything—just make sure you look good. The premise is the confrontational issue that your opponent has with you.

By watching the opponent’s body language, one can simply continue to obfuscate, redefine terms, and muddy one’s stance on the issue-at-hand in direct proportion to how confrontational the opponent is getting.

Since you’re both “sitting down and talking”, it can be very difficult for the opponent to nail you down on what you mean or what you say without recording your words and playing them back.

It’s also difficult for the opponent because, if you’re very good at this game, you can do things with your body language that suggest agreement without every really agreeing—nodding your head, murmuring, “Mm-hm,” at random points in their speech, or laughing like you’ve been good buddies for a long time.

This is very tricky, of course, because the point is never to commit to anything. And this is the game. (Online source)

Frank Rue

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