The Conversation to Have

Let's talk more with each other and strengthen our own thinking

With all the good advice out there on how to talk with partisan “opponents,” I thought a reminder in order about how to talk with ourselves and with our allies.  With opponents I agree with the “soft” approach, even if a bit duplicitous, i.e. don’t confront, ask for clarification, wait until asked for evidence and all that.  Not just psychobabble but still a bit condescending.  (Think of it as good manners and civil and I suppose it is worth trying.)

The person and people, however, that need evidence-based backbone are you, me and our already more or less in agreement friends.  Strengthen your own awareness and build on what you already know, or think.  Don’t lose a necessary caution, of course.  Certainties are for weaker mind than ours, I hope. But dive deeper into background and implications of policy ideas.  Stake out a place on the edge of new thinking about the possible and share your understanding.  Let us all comment and in such interchanges with others, develop further our intuitions and hopes. 

That leads me to say, please use the comment box (actually a rectangle) at the bottom of these blogs.  I’ll respond and I hope others will as well.  Check to see what others have said. Add your own voice.  If you’d like a copy of the blogs for the past month, email me Jbing@heidelberg.edu, and I’ll send them on and then welcome any comments and questions.  We can do it on chat or messenger or by email, as you wish.