There’s a nasty aspect to modern life - we seldom resolve disagreements. When there’s a dispute, how often do the protagonists modify their beliefs? Change their minds? And actually, admit to having held an erroneous idea?
You can bet that I have an idea of why that is so and here it is - too often they look to a third party, a politician, to support and enforce their idea over the opponent’s. In other words, there never is a real discussion to see the differences. All too often, introspection is missing.
Some recent examples that come to mind.
The farmer’s protests around the world stem from local politicians accepting questionable warnings of harm from both fertilizer and carbon dioxide. Notably, the people who claim gaming is harming the environment are not seeking to convince the farmers to change their ways but rather lobby the political arm to place a stranglehold on the farmers.
Yes, I do give short shrift to the environmental lobby. They don’t place food on my table and I find their attitude that no development is the best development extremely offensive. The human legacy is to develop the world for the betterment of mankind, unapologetically.
Of course, the lobbying for censorship of dissenting opinions with governments thrilled to accommodate and even initiate the persecution and prosecution of dissenting voices ices the proverbial cake. It makes my case. Many people would rather quiet the questioner than look for solutions, the timeless phase, ‘shooting the messenger’ reinforces the idea that history is replete with examples of unresolved problems.
The rug bulges. Abortion, climate change, oil, religion and politics, are all lumps we tread on wherever we go as this is a carpet that we live on.
Here in Canada, many of my fellow citizens appear to relish dictatorial government control. A bill under discussion, C-63, seeks to elevate ‘harm’ above truth. The idea that causing emotional stress by telling someone they are wrong is to be penalized in our now-woke Canada. I suspect this bit of drivel will die on the order table, but such a smelly balloon is floated at all is evidence of the intellectual bankruptcy of the country.
It’s also difficult to determine if this is just a smoke screen as the prime minister’s woes from a multitude of past misdeeds have flooded the little objective media that’s left in our nation.
But while we watch to see if the citizens of Canada will consider hurt feelings a reason to jail another for telling the truth, what of our personal lives? Will we sit down with those others we disagree with? do you see more value in a persuasive argument than forced silence? And can you see that the hurt feelings of today may well be a grateful sense of discovery tomorrow as a newfound truth dispels a falsehood from your mind?
Infallibility is not a human attribute. Perfection maybe is - I’ve been perfectly stupid many times. Cheers and relish our differences, That’s what makes life interesting.