Saturday, January 15, 2005
It can be good to disagree
In following up her discussion of the vituperative reaction that some emailers have had to her and Margaret Cho, among others, Michelle Malkin quotes a Thomas Sowell column which says some things about disagreement with which I thoroughly concur and therefore must reprint and annotate.
Although some people pay lip service to the idea of intellectual discourse, they become queasy about disturbing anyone and about loud voices that sound like arguing or "making a scene". Everyone chants the adage about getting more with honey than vinegar like a societal mantra. "Don't yell" and "calm down" are hastily uttered as soon as anyone is enthusiastic or excited about a point of view. Here is the central point:
Although some people pay lip service to the idea of intellectual discourse, they become queasy about disturbing anyone and about loud voices that sound like arguing or "making a scene". Everyone chants the adage about getting more with honey than vinegar like a societal mantra. "Don't yell" and "calm down" are hastily uttered as soon as anyone is enthusiastic or excited about a point of view. Here is the central point:
"Disagreements are inevitable whenever there are human beings but we seem to be in an era when the art of disagreeing is vanishing. That is a huge loss because out of disagreements have often come deeper understandings than either side had before confronting each other's arguments."I yearn for lively discussion, including disagreement, within a context of going toward deeper understanding. Arguments need not be the end of civility nor sever something important between them. And I noticed sometime in the last few years, particularly during the election campaign last fall, what Dr. Sowell points out, that
"[t]oo many people today act as if no one can honestly disagree with them. If you have a difference of opinion with them, you are considered to be not merely in error but in sin. You are a racist, a homophobe or whatever the villain of the day happens to be."Quite the contrary. Read what Dr. Sowell says about an important disagreement he had with a friend and keep in mind that Dr. Sowell is, himself, black:
"Rational disagreement can be not only useful but stimulating. Many years ago, when my friend and colleague Walter Williams and I worked on the same research project, he and I kept up a running debate on the reasons why blacks excelled in some sports and were virtually non-existent in others. Walter was convinced that the reasons were physical while I thought the reasons were social and economic. Walter would show me articles on physiology from scholarly journals, using them as explanations of why blacks had so many top basketball players and few, if any, swimming champions. We never settled that issue but it provided lively debates and we may both have learned something."I very much look forward to lots of lively, constructive, exciting, rational, detailed disagreements. And the new insights and understandings that result.
Labels: blogs (others'), modern culture, reflections
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