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In Reply to: censorship posted by susie on August 04, 2004 at 00:31:16:
I'm one of the coordinators who voted to keep the ban on political topics. Although WC reflects the consensus pretty well, you may appreciate hearing a personal view.
I consider myself a left-leaning moderate. The moderate/centrist thing is really an effort sometimes, but it is consistent with my philosophical beliefs and spiritual practice to seek balance and moderation in my thinking and action.
The polarization that's going on in the US right now freaks me out. When I looked at why I feel so uncomfortable with the political rhetoric and level of debate, I realized that it brings up a lot of deeply felt emotion from the Viet Nam War era. Those days weren't just a footnote in the history books for me or an abstraction on television that had little direct impact on my day-to-day life.
I came of age in terms of my social & political consciencousness in 1968 (the year Robert Kennedy was shot, the year of the Tet Offensive) in Honolulu, Hawaii, the seat of the Pacific Air Force command center for the Viet Nam conflict. As a military dependent, I saw my father nearly destroyed (emotionally, physically) from dealing with the corruption he uncovered during his battlefield tours. Friends and lovers came back on R&R shattered. The war was unpopular, and few people connected the body bags coming home to young men who believed in something enough to die for it. But then, in those days there was the draft, and many of those wounded and killed didn't willingly volunteer for that tour of duty.
I'm not talking about this because I want to see a debate about Viet Nam or get into a discussion about the current conflict in Iraq. When I realized how deeply triggered I am by the whole thing--the war, the current polarization--my strategy is to just walk away from the discussion. If other people want to rant and vent their spleen or even try to find some middle ground, that's fine. I don't have to read those posts or join in.
But as WC has pointed out, the format of this board makes it very hard to ignore certain topics or even join in on them in a carefully selected way. There's a very interesting thread going on at Movingon right now on a political topic (the Iraq war). I have posted one comment there--a specific response to someone I feel is a fair and balanced thinker. I don't always agree with this person, but I respect him & his carefully thought-out views on a number of topics.
It may also be that interacting around political topic with people of my own generation triggers me more than debate on a similar topic with younger folk does. WC may be right that too many people in my generation are stuck using the rhetoric of individuals who don't listen and reflect on what has been said, but instead take the approach to argumentation that goes, "I'm right because God is on my side, and I can prove you're damned for all eternity."
I'm not saying folks who post here come right out and say this sort of thing, but I hear that tape running far too often.
We discussed setting up a separate board for political discussion, and I even outlined a few of the basic communication rules that should guide civil debate. Number one rule: Always leave your opponent (someone who is arguing the other side of an issue) enough space and place to save face. People can discuss enormously emotional things if they give each other "outs." That's a basic of marriage counseling, and it works just about every where I've ever done conflict resolution.
But the more experienced coordinators had doubts about whether some folks would get it. I had doubts about how much energy I could put into moderating the discussion and reminding people of the basic rules. Considering how I get personally triggered, I didn't think I could stay objective and fair in my assessments of the rhetoric.
So that's my take on where we're at. People grow. Who knows? We may grow on this one and move on to a place where civil political discussion happens. But it's not like the US media are giving us a very good example of how to do it. When it comes to the civility thing, I just don't think it's part of US culture. Too bad we can't all be Canadians, eh?
