the philosophy behind Basho threads

Rikishi! Fight Honorably! Go!
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Many of you have seen these: threads started by a staffer that pit one subject versus another. The starting posts shows two Rikishi (sumo wrestlers) getting ready to fight under the watchful eye of the Gyōji (sumo referee) in the Dohyō (sumo ring) with the encouraging words:
Rikishi! Fight Honorably! Go!
That is all initial input from the thread starter, taking two concepts, bringing them down to preferably one impartial word each, and letting the match ensure.
A Basho fight is a definitive debating and voting spot to settle the score between a duality of two concepts pitted against each other. Only a staffer can initiate a Basho fight (for now its only me) and such a fight is valuable as there is only one fight per pairing.
Hard but proper respectful debate is encouraged, as if its a ritualized sumo match instead of guerilla war fighting to the death.
The posters are NOT the Rikishi, the clashing concepts are the Rikishi and our posts and votes are the techniques they use on each other. We slip into the skin of either concept and deal its techniques.
The objective is to cultivate a post format for honing our skill in high powered, explosive, but ritualized and respectful debate. We all can learn from this.
I know a businessman who literally is in charge of projects into the hundreds of millions of dollars. What is stunning about him is that he can, fast paced and convincingly, settle disputes, organize things, wrangle people towards an objective and get things done like clockwork. One of the skills he uses for that is fast paced disciplined power debating, meeting the objective while keeping the peace.
I know an ambulance paramedic who ends up in the worst situations a big city can offer where people are literally to pieces physically and psychologically, and one of his skills is the same one: rapidly assessing the situation and turning the greatest catastrophy into the best possible outcome as fast as possible, with people who are beside themselves with emotion.
Thats a good life skill, high powered discussing while keeping the peace, being disciplined about the mind and social interaction.
Sumo came to mind as a good format to embody it, a clash of titans, explosive but disciplined, and not going for the jugular like MMA but going through the motions, ritualized, in mutual respect and friendship. Sumo isn't American, European, Canadian or Australian, so its not from the Big Four groups of our membership, thereby removing that bias too.
So! Basho!
Staffers who will call legitimate Basho events will not overuse this posting format, but Basho threads will be a recurring theme, not just in The Pub but all over the Shroomery.
A staffer will call it, the members will determine the outcome.
At first it will be awkward but it potentially can get fun and even amazing, as seasoned Basho veterans clash into each other from the first post on. That is a potential outcome.
Let's make this fun!
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