What do you think, dear readers, about debate? Should you debate your friends? Can you debate your friends, and still remain friendly, or does it lead to hard feelings?
Personally, I've always liked a good, spirited debate, and I never expect others to agree with me since I am in fact, the polar opposite of the person who can sell ice to an Eskimo, no pun intended. If I went in for an umbrella because it was raining, the rest of the world would take their raincoats off. So, I don't mind a good debate. I enjoy talking, and I enjoy hearing what others have to say. But I'm always afraid that someday I will go too far.
It seems like in our present culture - or maybe in any culture, at any time - but it seems like we are especially polarized these days, with the 99% and the 1%, or the right wing and the left wing, people petitioning for gay marriage and people petitioning against it, pro-lifers and pro-choicers, etc. - it seems like now more than ever, you are the sum total of your opinions, and it is not ok to sympathize with a position you yourself do not hold, or to play devil's advocate. So I am always afraid, when I find myself jumping in feet first to a spirited debate (as I did on Facebook earlier today) both because I like to argue and because I hate it when it seems that one side or another is underrepresented, that I will take it too far, that my friends will come to see me as voicing my inflexible opinion, not as another side of the question we haven't considered, but as a vote against them. Or that my next argument will be taken less seriously because as we often hear on the internet, people like to surround themselves with an 'echo chamber' when they are online, to a certain extent. Of course, I have very intelligent, reasonable friends - maybe even more reasonable than me, most of the time, and I'm sure that I'm overthinking this. But what do you think? Is debate fun? Can it go too far?
No comments:
Post a Comment