Is This Where We Came In?

Professor J,

I was thinking that the continuation of smoking by anyone anywhere is just more proof of our addiction to short term thinking. 

I also have never been to Canada, so have no personal experience to add here.

I'm tempted to read all kinds of hidden meaning into the library that became a Victoria's Secret, but yes, for the sake of bibliophiles everywhere let's just assume the library moved. ;)

The real thing I'd like to know is --did the Canadians seem able to have a civil discussion? You mentioned several protesting groups. What was their demeanor? 

While watching the president's speech on health care today I saw that he was booed by some young people protesting the pipeline. Yesterday at Columbia the Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly was actually prevented from speaking because the students booed him off the stage and the speech was cancelled.  Of late all over social media we've seen friends have visceral reactions to hearing an opinion that opposes theirs. The language is heated. And the points mostly rehashed sound bites from one side or the other.

We want people to be passionate about their government and what is happening in their communities, but passionate debate can't take place when things are shut down and discussion is prevented. The students certainly have a right to ask about how profiling is being used, but I found it particularly interesting that the students at Columbia thought they'd struck a blow for "free speech." That confused me a bit especially since Kelly's remarks were supposed to be followed by a question and answer session.

And when was the last time you heard anyone say that they've changed their mind on something? When did the intellectual honesty to say that you learned something new, reexamined your stance, or were previously misinformed become a liability?

Perhaps that is one of the biggest problems with the lack of civility in the arguments floating around, when you've resorted to name calling it becomes a lot harder to admit later that you were wrong. Verbal flame throwing makes it hard to listen anyway so you aren't likely to learn much. Anonymous technology ramps all this up of course. Which makes me wonder if these discussions are best had among close friends or at least people who respect each other. When the relationship is more important than getting the "one up" it tempers our language.

I know this sounds familiar but it seems much worse now than when we started having this discussion. And it was bad then! Please feel free to tell me if it's just me.