What can I do about it? This guy had an interesting idea. A return to the Victory Garden, anyone?
Showing posts with label Modest Proposals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modest Proposals. Show all posts
Monday, August 4, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
A Modest Proposal
Denny has previously made the claim that our democracy works precisely because its flexible nature allows it to withstand temporary threats to its basic principles. He has pointed to our debates here as evidence that the democracy is working because it indicates that there is sufficient transparency to allow the mechanism of our government to work through its problems.
I would argue that a similar trend is in action here at AHOCF. We have, from time to time, strayed from the path of reasoned debate into the more contentious and less civil discourse, only to recover time and again. Cooler heads do prevail and our path is once again set aright. Huzzah indeed.
In recognition and support of this resilience, I'd like to offer up a modest proposal.
Denny and I have concluded a truce of sorts -- to be humorous about it -- over at his Worldview blog. More accurately and more seriously, I think we've come to an understanding. We each took time to calmly clarify our positions about a disagreement we were having about who characterized what statements inaccurately. While we may not have reached a perfect harmony, I think both of us are satisfied with the results. We have concluded that further discussion -- I stress that term, discussion -- of the legality of warrantless surveillance is, um, warranted. It is upon this question -- is warrantless surveillance legal -- that our disagreement seems to rest.
So to my proposal. As a writing teacher, I have often used an approach with my students to attempt to get them to see other sides of an issue they have chosen to write about. We often talk about counter-arguments, but this term seems to denote a "thing" they have to create rather than a natural set of ideas that exist that they must discover. To overcome this misunderstanding as well as to encourage reason over emotion, I'll often ask them to argue the opposite of what they currently believe about an issue. This forces them to take seriously other points of view and, just as importantly, to understand them.
I would like to think we don't need this lesson and that it would merely be an interesting exercise, but our history calls that hope into question. Nevertheless, I think it would be an interesting exercise and might well benefit our discussion.
I think we can reliably, at this point, propose two theses: 1) Warrantless surveillance is legal, and 2) Warrantless surrveillance is illegal. Before we begin to argue, in the best sense of that word, those points, we might want to work together to further clarify or focus those theses. For example, would it be helpful to define warrantless surveillance of whom is legal/illegal? We want our theses to actually represent the core of the current argument, after all.
So, is anyone interested in trying this approach? If so, shall we begin by clarifying those basic theses so we actually spend our time trying to argue precisely what we want to argue? And as we choose up teams, who wants to be shirts and who wants to be skins?
I would argue that a similar trend is in action here at AHOCF. We have, from time to time, strayed from the path of reasoned debate into the more contentious and less civil discourse, only to recover time and again. Cooler heads do prevail and our path is once again set aright. Huzzah indeed.
In recognition and support of this resilience, I'd like to offer up a modest proposal.
Denny and I have concluded a truce of sorts -- to be humorous about it -- over at his Worldview blog. More accurately and more seriously, I think we've come to an understanding. We each took time to calmly clarify our positions about a disagreement we were having about who characterized what statements inaccurately. While we may not have reached a perfect harmony, I think both of us are satisfied with the results. We have concluded that further discussion -- I stress that term, discussion -- of the legality of warrantless surveillance is, um, warranted. It is upon this question -- is warrantless surveillance legal -- that our disagreement seems to rest.
So to my proposal. As a writing teacher, I have often used an approach with my students to attempt to get them to see other sides of an issue they have chosen to write about. We often talk about counter-arguments, but this term seems to denote a "thing" they have to create rather than a natural set of ideas that exist that they must discover. To overcome this misunderstanding as well as to encourage reason over emotion, I'll often ask them to argue the opposite of what they currently believe about an issue. This forces them to take seriously other points of view and, just as importantly, to understand them.
I would like to think we don't need this lesson and that it would merely be an interesting exercise, but our history calls that hope into question. Nevertheless, I think it would be an interesting exercise and might well benefit our discussion.
I think we can reliably, at this point, propose two theses: 1) Warrantless surveillance is legal, and 2) Warrantless surrveillance is illegal. Before we begin to argue, in the best sense of that word, those points, we might want to work together to further clarify or focus those theses. For example, would it be helpful to define warrantless surveillance of whom is legal/illegal? We want our theses to actually represent the core of the current argument, after all.
So, is anyone interested in trying this approach? If so, shall we begin by clarifying those basic theses so we actually spend our time trying to argue precisely what we want to argue? And as we choose up teams, who wants to be shirts and who wants to be skins?
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