Here's an interesting article that ran in Tuesday's _Times Picayune_ (10/13), written by Jarvis Deberry: Is art of persuasion dying a quiet death?
I think it might help us to recognize some of our own resistance to the texts we have been reading. It might also throw out the challenge to re-engage with these texts--and those that follow--in a less stringent, less absolute manner. Perhaps we can unhinge from what the article declares is our suspicion of texts that "don't believe as we do," so as to not become trapped by "the righteousness of our own positions."
I wonder what your response to the article will be? And, further, how you might apply the subject of this article to our course?
I'm listening... well, reading, if truth be written.
Sadly, he's right. We have grown up in a world where our nation attempted to impeach a president for having extra-marital oral sex, and it is the norm to impale a politician of the opposing party on an ignorance stake, simply because that politician is of the "them" category in our us vs. them world.
ReplyDeleteMost kids today grow up in households where the controversial topics are not spoken about; mainly politics, religion and sex.
Luckily for me and usually unluckily for my friends, my family had these kinds of discussions at the dinner table almost nightly. My mother is a loud-mouthed liberal and my step-father is a quiet more moderate liberal, which should mean that I am a ridiculously liberal person. I am liberal but I can also analyze and occasionally adopt conservative ideas, on their merit. I very rarely get turned off of an idea because it is "conservative" or "republican" (personally I think an idea is common property and can't be owned).
Unfortunatly my experience is not common. Most students don't get open discussion or any discussion at all. They are told that one perspective is right, and is right simply on the basis that it is not the "other" or "wrong" perspective.
This makes me worry that moderates and anything like compromise will soon die out in this country for lack of use. When that happens I will happily emigrate to England, where they can at least laugh at their own points of view.
This is such a scary article--and it's scary because it's true. Our media and political parties have gotten to the point where they can't have a reasonable debate any longer. As an extension, it's hard to even talk to your friends when they have different views. I try my best to recognize both sides of an issue, but I often find the people that don't agree with me are "tuning me out".
ReplyDeleteI think the most disturbing part of the artivle is that
"the least likely to discuss politics with people of different views, and this was particularly true of the well educated. High school dropouts had the most diverse group of discussion-mates, while college graduates managed to shelter themselves from uncomfortable perspectives."
This makes me wonder what people are doing with higher education. Universities should make people more well rounded and give them the tools for having a discussion with opposing view points. Are debates in classrooms dead? Are students being taught that there is one "right way"?