Devil's Advocate

I was hanging out in the men's room today when a man walked in and told a work buddy of his that "someone just told me they were playing devil's advocate, all that really means is that they wanted to say something but not be responsible for it." While I pretty much have come to the conclusion that he doens't mean that he is playing "Devil's advocate" from the movie with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. And since the "advocate" refers to the Devil Al Pacino's son, played by Keanu Reeves, he means that he is taking the position of Keanu Reeves, who also played Neo in the Matrix and Ted, in Bill and Ted's blah blah Adventure or whatever. And by saying that he was Keanu Reeves he was also taking the position of Ted in those "bogus" movies, in which Ted rarely takes any responsibility for much of anything, therefore, he is playing "Keanu Reeves as the devil's advocate who also played Ted who never takes any responsbility, so I can say whaever I want."

To the contrary, I think the man in the men's room was actually referring to the fact that when you play the "devil's advocate," you are just making sure that the discussion includes a point of view which the advocate in question does not actually back up. But this naysayer believes that every time someone says that, they are actually just shirking all responsibilty just so they can get their point of view out there without actually having to fess up to all the negative impact that point of view might face. But is that always the case?

I think one could genuinely want to take a look at opposing view points even if that one did not support them. Part of a responsible decision making process should always include that aspect, shouldn't it? I suppose it's possible that it gets down to what your internal motivations are for taking any certain action. Do you actually compeltely not support something if you mention it, or is there a small part of you that supports that point of view?

I'm going to play the Devil's advocate here and say that you sure can play the Devil's advocate, and not support something, especially when you rock out on the air guitar anytime something cool happens, dude.