A lot of corporate networking is nothing but gossiping. In fact, people feel comfortable with each other only when they can share trivia with each other, which is nothing but gossiping.
You say, “Now I am intimate with that person.” How? Why? “Because, you see, now I can engage in loose talk with that person, and that’s a sign of intimacy. Now I can talk crap, and he will take my crap. This shows that the two of us are now cozy, comfortable with each other. We are intimate.” Don’t you see gossip is serving a function?
So many love affairs are actually based on not much more than gossip. What do the couples mostly do day in and day out? Do they discuss wisdom? Do they discuss geopolitics? Do they discuss international history? Do they discuss the Renaissance and enlightenment? What is it that they are doing every day? They gossip—and they gossip like hell. But that gossip is so fruitful: they get sex.
