We must learn to talk with one another.
Spare the country the thoughts and prayers; spare us all the expressions of shock and well-wishes for Donald Trump to be OK.
It is time for a national reckoning about the path we are on as a nation.
When the FXBG Advance started, we did so with a clear, guiding principle. The way we talk about others, matters. We strive to reflect that in our reporting every day, and the New Dominion Podcast started as an exercise in trying to model a better way forward.
We are far from perfect. In truth, we have a long, long way to go.
But the only way to start is to sit across from the table with people who aren’t like us and talk with them, not to them.
Conversation begins with listening. Not contradicting. Not defending your position. Not arguing. Listening.
As we like to say at NDP and in the interviews we do in the Advance with local leaders, we want to get to know your “why behind the why.”
Yes, someone will believe in X, Y, and Z. But what brings them to that position? When we know that, the details of X, Y, and Z begin to recede into the background, and a conversation can bloom.
We need a lot more than this, and a lot less of what passes for discourse today.
We’ve traded conversation for Facebook comments — that’s not conversation.
We’ve traded thoughtful, informed debate for ideological gibberish and bumper-sticker slogans — they’re neither thoughtful nor informed.
And perhaps most importantly, we’ve traded grace and humility for data and “facts,” as if either is superior to the two traits that have guided the growth of human civilization for some six millennia.
I commented to my thought-partner Shaun Kenney several weeks ago that I’d already written my post-election-day commentary. In a nutshell, it’s this: Regardless who wins, half the country will be angry. We have to find a better way forward.
Democracy is not easy. And it doesn’t work when people believe politics is beyond repair. Politics is at the core of who we are.
My friend Kenney is far more versed in Aristotle than I, so pardon me for turning to Britannica to summarize the truth about politics Aristotle spoke in the region that gave us the foundational tenets of democracy:
[Politics], Aristotle says, is to investigate, on the basis of the constitutions collected, what makes for good government and what makes for bad government and to identify the factors favourable or unfavourable to the preservation of a constitution.
We identify those factors by talking with one another, not hurling barbs on social media.
At the end of the day, it’s up to us. We all need to demand better or ourselves.
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