Have We Lost the Ability to Discuss?
submitted 6-12-07, by PT

As a society...

Have we lost the ability to approach important issues honestly?

Are we no longer able to learn from one another in open discussion?

Have ambition, greed, and defiance replaced thought, logic, and reason?

At one time our country, not that long ago, during dining room discussions, classroom debates, and public forums, people were expected to present their point of view articulately, debate respectfully with any who might disagree, and be willing to accept defeat if they could not effectively defend their position against an opponent's barrage of solid logic.

Since it is not always possible to reconcile extreme opposites, compromise was not uncommon. The more highly skilled debaters would look for points of consensus and build on these to create agreement between opposing arguments. This tended to modify and mollify extreme positions and promote constructive action from opposing perspectives.

Listeners, those who might be the targeted audience to a debate, were held to standards as well. Being intelligent sentient beings, listeners were expected to honor an unassailable argument by conceding their own preconceptions and acknowledging the evident truth that was presented in such reasonable manner.

But, what has happened today? Reason, logic, and decorum are not in evidence anywhere in our social intercourse.

I blame television, the motion picture industry, and public schools.

The purpose, mission, and goal of television and movies are to entertain. The best selling types of entertainment are violent, sensational, and mind-numbing. Heroes are those who win the bloodiest battles. Heroines fall for the hunk who batters opposition by striking out, maiming, killing, destroying his enemies. And unfortunately, this pattern is probably unavoidable. Sensationalism will always be a best seller.

The problem boils down to the imbalance between entertainment and education. We are overwhelmed with types and repetitions of entertainment, and, our educational institutions offer no discernible desirable alternative to brute mentality.

With no ingrained alternative ethic or role model, our citizens grow to use curses and expletives as the vocabulary of debate. Such words encourage neither compromise nor agreement.

The ultimate solution is simple to state but nigh impossible to achieve. All we have to do is teach an entire generation the value of gentile expression.

I submit that every concerned, thinking American adult should find an avenue by which to teach some little bit of gentility to as many young folk as possible. Teach the fine art of gallantry. Extol the virtues of compromise and concession.

Our schools have failed. Elementary schools do try to teach civility, but are ineffective against the onslaught of television. Secondary and undergraduate curricula ignore socialization almost completely. Post-graduate schooling and doctoral programs might as well all be designed for litigators. Aggression, ambition, and winning-at-all-cost are set forth as proper attributes for success. Compromise is for losers.

You and I must make the difference.

If reason is to prevail in any venue, you must convince at least one young person that opinions must be upheld by truth, facts, and logic...not yelling, anger, or violence.