Like many, I've been thinking (and talking) a lot lately about the current state of American social dialogue, and bemoaning that the art seems to have been lost, if indeed we ever had it and it's not just another rose-colored nostalgic fallacy. (If you wonder why I say that, look no further than political cartoons from, say, a hundred years ago.)
Inspired by this post in
bentleywg's journal, I've figured out what I want to do about it.
At least once a day, I'm going to post a link to a site explicating an issue, belief, moral stance or organization that is controversial and/or appears to be misunderstood by at least some significant proportion of theAmerican public. The purpose of this will be neither to endorse nor to ridicule the views expressed on the linked page. The purpose will be to challenge myself, and any who choose to participate with me, to read, absorb and digest what the person has to say.
Many, if not most, of you have strong feelings, values, beliefs, opinions. So do I. My challenge, then, is to educate ourselves and one another so that we understand all those positions.
We all know how to speak our minds. Our challenge is to listen.
I'm still thinking about how best to keep that focus. I don't want to disable comments -- although I do want people to think twice about whether a comment is necessary -- and I also don't want to make a bunch of complicated rules about what kind of comment is or is not appropriate. I do think I'm going to come up with suggestions for how to approach it to best achieve the goal in mind. So far I have two:
Any other suggestions?
I thought about creating a community, but I think I want to keep the experiment small at first. The posts will be public, and will remain so as long as it doesn't attract flamewars. If it grows on its own, that's great. Then I might think about moving it off my LJ, and getting into all that pesky rules and mod nonsense. (Conversely, if things get nasty, I can create a filter, but I'm betting against that one.)
Inspired by this post in
bentleywg's journal, I've figured out what I want to do about it.At least once a day, I'm going to post a link to a site explicating an issue, belief, moral stance or organization that is controversial and/or appears to be misunderstood by at least some significant proportion of the
Many, if not most, of you have strong feelings, values, beliefs, opinions. So do I. My challenge, then, is to educate ourselves and one another so that we understand all those positions.
We all know how to speak our minds. Our challenge is to listen.
I'm still thinking about how best to keep that focus. I don't want to disable comments -- although I do want people to think twice about whether a comment is necessary -- and I also don't want to make a bunch of complicated rules about what kind of comment is or is not appropriate. I do think I'm going to come up with suggestions for how to approach it to best achieve the goal in mind. So far I have two:
- Don't post your immediate gut-level response. Read, think about it, and if there is something you really want to say or ask, come back. The post will still be here.
- If a thought process in the linked page doesn't make sense to you, phrase it as a question. Maybe someone here has an answer that will help.
Any other suggestions?
I thought about creating a community, but I think I want to keep the experiment small at first. The posts will be public, and will remain so as long as it doesn't attract flamewars. If it grows on its own, that's great. Then I might think about moving it off my LJ, and getting into all that pesky rules and mod nonsense. (Conversely, if things get nasty, I can create a filter, but I'm betting against that one.)
- Current Mood:
quixotic
Profile
- wiliqueen
- Valerie - Postmodern Pollyanna
- WiliQueen's Woods
Page Summary
- lisayaeger : (no subject) [+1]
- neadods : (no subject) [+5]
- chiroho : (no subject) [+3]
- masteralida : (no subject) [+1]
- kjaneway : (no subject) [+1]
- (Anonymous) : (no subject) [+15]
- coltsbane : (no subject) [+5]
Designed by chasethestars
chasethestars
Comments
They’d be incredulous, no doubt, to know that the hair salon owner in Springfield, OH or the construction firm owner in Ely, NV who’s read everything LaHaye’s written have more of a finger on the pulse of the nation right now than those grad students do in their solipsistic, moldy academic strongholds with their well-worn copies of Derrida and Foucault.
The ugliest part of this whole split is the belief that one side or the other Just Doesn't Get what the "real citizens" of this nation are thinking.
It is a truth that I wish was universally acknowledged, that this nation is split right down the middle. Nobody has their finger "more on the pulse." There are plenty of Republicans who voted for Bush this last election who have equal contempt for LaHeye's philosophy - these people were voting their conscience on national security, not premillenial dispensation. There are also plenty of evangelistic people who voted for Kerry because of their religious convictions, feeling that Kerry would do more to uphold Biblical beliefs about the poor than Bush has.
The author of the piece was as snottily dismissive of the students as they were of LaHeye, and two wrongs do not make a right. We cannot open a dialog from either side with the attitude of "I'm the real citizen, you're nuts." And with the last two elections so very close, nobody has the high moral ground of "my way is the future" either.
Nope. But they do point out that everyone would be better served to be sure they know what they're talking about.
I'm thinking one thing I'm going to do is to ask people who absolutely MUST vent about something to take it to their own LJ. As long as that can be respected, I won't have to resort to deleting comments or anything.
And yeah, I probably shouldn't have even bothered mentioning "American dialogue," 'cause it's not like we're the only ones doing it...
The challenge is to ignorance, period.
As such, some things will rely on truths we may not be willing to agree with or accept.
But we should know what they are. And sometimes we think we do when we don't at all.
Like I said, geek. Anthro geek. I see it all the time with anthropologists examining non-Western belief systems and pointing out how many people think that their way is "common sense" and have no second thoughts about it. There's some material on that approach for Western society, but nowhere near enough. And I'd love to see it up close and personal, especially with such a variety of people as you find on LJ :)
*geek moment over*
I have a BSc in Chemistry. I work in IT. I want to do a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
It's not just about the East/West divide, though I find that one fascinating. Even within Western belief structures, there's a science/arts'n'humanities divide that can lead to very different views of the world.