My mum frequently, with clear pride and love for him, tells me of growing up having arguments ("discussions") with her dad and at the end of them, when they'd both be ready to storm off, he'd make her argue again but taking the other side. I don't know if I'd have loved it at the time but I love, now, the idea of debate being a bigger (mandatory?) part of the curriculum.
Yes to committing to 'the simple goal of persuasion' and avoiding scolding those who might think differently to us.
When I sail past OUR LOCAL ARMS FACTORY on the bus I have taken to reminding folk riding on the top deck that L3 Harris manufacture bomb release mechanisms for use by the IDF and others. A couple of weeks ago, in response to my announcement, a pair of young people piped up. 'We live in a capitalist country, they can do what they like,' they said. 'They can,' I agreed. L3Harris's business is legal, sanctioned, and indeed greatly cherished by the UK government. I asked the young people if they were happy that mechanisms to facilitate the killing of ordinary people were being made in a warehouse on their bus route and they said yes, they were happy. I checked that they were okay with bombs being dropped on hospitals and hospital tents because of hardware being manufactured in their home town and they were fine with that, too. No persuading was done, and no scolding, just a sharing of different opinions, which felt human in a way that say, dropping bombs on homes and schools and hospitals doesn't.
This is an excellent piece, thank you, completely agree.
This is implicit (I think) in your reference to the "hopefulness" of radical politics but something else I want to see more of alongside the listening is that, when we do seek to persuade people, we do it with a positive vision of the future, not scare stories.
I can't remember where now, but an excellent point I saw made about the US election is that if your only message is "vote for us to save democracy" then ironically that's a fundamentally anti-democratic pitch to voters which is unlikely to resonate.
I agree - and I think the centre-left's inability to actually offer voters any meaningful change or a reflection of their socialist politics is why those parties are in such a state. You need to offer people real thing, real changes, real betterment.
Yep, exactly. If Starmer/Biden/Harris/etc. "progressives" aren't offering anything other than more of the status quo, I don't see how they're not literally just conservatives.
You nailed it. It's very difficult to change a landscape if you don't understand it.
My mum frequently, with clear pride and love for him, tells me of growing up having arguments ("discussions") with her dad and at the end of them, when they'd both be ready to storm off, he'd make her argue again but taking the other side. I don't know if I'd have loved it at the time but I love, now, the idea of debate being a bigger (mandatory?) part of the curriculum.
Terrific. Thank you.
Yes to committing to 'the simple goal of persuasion' and avoiding scolding those who might think differently to us.
When I sail past OUR LOCAL ARMS FACTORY on the bus I have taken to reminding folk riding on the top deck that L3 Harris manufacture bomb release mechanisms for use by the IDF and others. A couple of weeks ago, in response to my announcement, a pair of young people piped up. 'We live in a capitalist country, they can do what they like,' they said. 'They can,' I agreed. L3Harris's business is legal, sanctioned, and indeed greatly cherished by the UK government. I asked the young people if they were happy that mechanisms to facilitate the killing of ordinary people were being made in a warehouse on their bus route and they said yes, they were happy. I checked that they were okay with bombs being dropped on hospitals and hospital tents because of hardware being manufactured in their home town and they were fine with that, too. No persuading was done, and no scolding, just a sharing of different opinions, which felt human in a way that say, dropping bombs on homes and schools and hospitals doesn't.
I'm so shocked that they would admit to that opinion, and shamelessly
This is an excellent piece, thank you, completely agree.
This is implicit (I think) in your reference to the "hopefulness" of radical politics but something else I want to see more of alongside the listening is that, when we do seek to persuade people, we do it with a positive vision of the future, not scare stories.
I can't remember where now, but an excellent point I saw made about the US election is that if your only message is "vote for us to save democracy" then ironically that's a fundamentally anti-democratic pitch to voters which is unlikely to resonate.
I agree - and I think the centre-left's inability to actually offer voters any meaningful change or a reflection of their socialist politics is why those parties are in such a state. You need to offer people real thing, real changes, real betterment.
Yep, exactly. If Starmer/Biden/Harris/etc. "progressives" aren't offering anything other than more of the status quo, I don't see how they're not literally just conservatives.
My goodness. What a wonderful essay.
❤️❤️❤️