Well, and I absolutely agree with you too! (How did that happen?! Must be a mistake! <gg>)
And I second your observation that this country was founded on a vision made possible by the "capacity for dialogue."
Your point about SI is interesting (that people come to sites like this because they are hungry for real dialogue).
When I first visited a coffee shop thread (and you will know which one that was), I assumed that people were looking for dialogue. And I thought: Gee, isn't this great! Here are people, who in the normal course of affairs would never travel in the same circles, getting together and sharing their views, conducting a dialogue!
But I soon concluded that many of the posters came there not for dialogue, but on search & destroy missions -- to wipe out the enemy in his den, as it were. I am not referring to squabbles between two individuals, but rather to the blanket condemnations of "the enemy" as it was perceived, on the lines of "liberals are all so stupid," or "the fundamentalists want to take away all our liberties," etc., etc.
Now, I recognize that both motives -- the desire to share and the impulse to reject -- are often intertwined, and often in the same individual.
After all, if we need to "rediscover" the "capacity to talk with one another," then that means we have lost it. It takes time to build it up again. Right?
Joan |
