The one big thing that drives polarisation is surely the big increase in self-righteousness, the conviction that a person's beliefs and attitudes are the only correct ones and other people's beliefs and attitudes are obviously wrong.
I see this all the time in relation to immigration, transgender, vaccinations, welfare benefits and all sorts of political and social issues.
People are shedding the customary idea that differences of opinion should be resolved through intelligent debate and fact-finding, and are taking up opinions because they "feel right" or it's what their friends think or it's what someone said on the telly.
But what can be done to restore rational debate and open-mindedness? I'm not sure anything can be done, self-righteousness is now so prevalent and common sense so often absent. Once a bandwagon starts rolling and a dubious opinion gets wide approval it's hard to stop it.
What can you do when someone is adamant that you can change sex, or immigrants are all criminals and sex-offenders, or vaccinations are killing thousands of people, or workshy layabouts are sponging off welfare benefits?
It's an uphill task to convince them otherwise.
Nick, I'm not in the mood to comment about anything. We are so shocked about the killing in Gaza that nothing is of any interest for us at the moment.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: I quite understand. There are no words adequate to describe the apocalypse that is being unleashed on Gaza.
DeleteThe Israelis are just doing in Gaza what the US and British air forces did to German cities during World War II, and for the same reasons. The October 7 attack demonstrated that Hamas needs to be annihilated at any cost. I cannot think of any other country on Earth which, after a provocation like October 7, would have shown the restraint that Israel has shown in Gaza.
DeleteThere are at least three conflicts going on in the Arab world alone right now which are each killing more people than the Gaza campaign, but the people who endlessly rant and rave about Gaza never pay any attention to those, because they can't be used as a pretext to denounce the Jews.
Infidel: I can't agree with you about Gaza and Israel. All I see is rampant destruction and carnage, whoever is the perpetrator and whatever the motivation.
DeleteI think it's rooted in a steadily more pervasive attitude that one's own opinions are so self-evident that any disagreement must be rooted in profound moral evil and malevolence, which makes debate irrelevant, since there is no debating with absolute evil. This is exacerbated by making a virtue of refusing to read any source of information that doesn't align with what one already believes, as if for fear of contamination with shunned ideas, and the habit of denouncing any different opinion by name-calling that associates it with the most extreme evil possible, such as calling everybody who disagrees with you a Nazi. I call this the "everything I don't like is Hitler" attitude.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really new, though. During the Middle Ages this was the standard stance on disagreements over religion, which is why Christians and Muslims, or Catholics and Protestants, generally resorted to all-out mass slaughter of each other rather than debate. The Enlightenment ushered us out of that stage of ignorance by restoring logic, reason, and evidence as the valid standards of truth, but not everyone in the population has ever accepted that. Thanks to the internet, the sludge at the bottom of the gene pool now has as much visibility and superficial legitimacy and people who can actually think, and they are able to get together and make a lot more noise. Their dominance over political discourse is now nearly unchallengeable.
Sir, I'm a German Jew and my husband is a Palestinian from Gaza. We both were doctors with Médécins sans frontières , we are two old persons now and know very well what is happening in Gaza.
DeleteHannah
Infidel: The values of the Enlightenment are steadily being eroded, especially as you say through the internet and social media. You're right that they're having a huge influence on political discourse.
DeleteNick , I apologize. My simple comment provoked this reader to give his ideas concerning Gaza.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: Nothing to worry about. I suspect Infidel was simply commenting on my post and wasn't reacting to you.
DeletePeople are also very opposed to admitting they were wrong about something.
ReplyDeleteMary: They are. They don't want to admit to being ignorant about something.
DeleteBut, sometimes we are right. My former sister-in-law kept her first two kids on welfare while going on to have four more with her second husband. She refused to let him adopt the first two as they would lose the benefits if he did. I can't find anything right about their behavior.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: I agree, that's pretty immoral behaviour.
DeleteNick, nothing to do with this post , but Saïd and I just followed a wonderful "reportage" on the Arte Channel named 360° reportage about the "Hit the North" festival in your home town. So many wonderful street art and inspiring artist. Really interesting , made us feel good.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: Somehow I never heard about the Hit The North Festival, but it sounds like it was worth visiting. Jenny was actually in Toronto on May 4!
DeleteIt's harder and harder to have a civil conversation these days when people don't have the same thoughts on some things. It aggravates me to no end when I see people on social media saying that if you don't agree with them that you can unfriend yourself.
ReplyDeleteMary: That's what I enjoy about my blog, people express all sorts of different views and they're all welcome. I'm not saying, if you don't agree with me you can bugger off.
Delete