One of the Primary Problems With America
By Daniel Miessler on September 25th, 2008: Tagged as America | Culture
One of the most serious signs of an ailing democracy is the unwillingness of the people to passionately debate important topics, e.g. politics. This is rampant in the South where it’s considered highly disrespectful to debate with people since it involves telling the other person they’re wrong about something. In short, the idea is to avoid spirited discourse because it’s rude.
This is troubling. Also, I find it interesting that debate thrives in the west where the politics are liberal, while debate is highly discouraged in the South where the politics are…anti-liberal.
Anyway, here’s an interesting piece at Overcoming Bias, which is one of my favorite blogs. It puts forth the idea that debate is fundamentally disrespectful.
I actually agree with this, and I think it is those who are more open-minded and thoughtful who can handle these types of challenges to their identity and beliefs. Hence the regional differences in attitudes toward debate.
Thoughts?
Links
--
Don’t know what planet you’re on, but where I am, and with the people I know, political debate is all we’ve been doing for the last, oh…eight+ years?
Comment by Chris — 9/25/2008 @ 4:13 pm
You are more likely to see protests in liberal areas but protests != disagreements. The conservatives in the south more likely agree with Bush and “neo-cons” but if it were a liberal in power, I bet the “south” would be just as disagreeable as the “west” is now.
But with the regional differentiation in acceptance of disagreements… I don’t see it. Yes, the south is more polite, but there is no lack of passionate debates: Immigration, English-as-second-language, the other side of the evolution/creationism debates, Mexicans thinking that Texas belongs to Mexico, property rights, gun laws, both Alex Jones’ conspiracy movement and Ron Paul’s libertarian movement started in…..
Comment by shane — 9/25/2008 @ 7:13 pm
Having been born and raised in the South, I find this opinion slightly flawed. Debate in and of itself is not frowned upon as long as you can keep Godwin’s law at bay. Respect goes a long way in the South, and also the sense of community and high moral values tends towards conformity, and debate by definition is to engage in an argument. However, if I disagree with something, I will debate it. I guess with areas of very similar moral and political values, an unneeded debate could be mistaken for an unwillingness to debate for the sake of debate.
Comment by D.R. — 9/25/2008 @ 7:19 pm
I’m almost afraid to disagree with you on this one, Daniel. :-)
But, I honestly don’t believe that disagreement is in any way equivalent to disrespect. An example would be two religious people with differing faiths who nonetheless respect each others faiths. There are plenty of such people. Another example would be two scientists who are pushing the frontiers of some branch of science .. each coming to believe in slightly different (and contradictory) theories that go beyond what is currently testable. Until experimental results come that excludes one or the other (or both) of the theories, these scientists can disagree about which is more likely to be true but still respect each other.
As a more concrete example. I believe that a sensible place to draw the line for the beginning of human life is at the onset of brain waves (since this is how we define the END of human life). Others believe that human life begins at conception or at implantation or at some other moment. I can respect those views and the people who hold them (and some of them can respect my view).
And, another concrete example, I don’t always agree with what you write on this blog, but my respect isn’t diminished when I read a comment I don’t agree with. The same is true for your other contributers. In fact, there is often a high level of respectful discourse here — much of it respectful disagreement. I don’t see any contradiction in that phrase.
Carl
Comment by Carl M — 9/26/2008 @ 1:03 am
I know that people are really touchy about politics because it’s been so brutal for the past few years. Plenty of people feel ripped off and slighted on both sides of the spectrum, it’s just gotten so corrosive that we all just watch TV that fits our views and read things that fit our views.
Really what happens is that both sides get polarized, and seek to insulate themselves from each other, while the people in the middle of the political spectrum become apathetic.
Comment by Sean — 9/26/2008 @ 8:13 am