From: Samantha (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon May 19 2003 - 02:03:46 MDT
On Wednesday 14 May 2003 07:42 am, Charles Hixson wrote:
> An example of this was the recent invasion of Ira?. (I can never
> keep those two straight.) Before the decision was framed as a
> binary choice there were many views. After it was framed, the
> viewpoints tended to reduce, eventually those with viewpoints other
> than Passifist/Militarist began to be ridiculed.
I don't believe it was ever reduced to that extreme extent. Voices
on both sides could not easily be so pigeon-holed. I didn't oppose
the invasion on grounds of pacifism but on ground that it was an
unjustified, dangerous, costly and highly destabilizing thing to do.
> This is normal primate politics, and one shouldn't expect anything
> different. The improvement is that this discussion didn't
> physically injure anyone.
>
> If you really want to get away from this, you need to insist that
> choices not be phrased in a binary fashion. There's nothing
> intrinsically wrong with binary choices, but people seem to have
> certain mechanisms that get turned on when they appear. If there
> aren't at least four major choices (meaning ALL views are in a
> substantial minority), then you need to expect the "dominant group"
> mentality to emerge...which tends to put an end to rational
> argument on any of the features which are dogma to the dominant
> group. A nice thing about mailing lists is that one has an easy
> chance to observe this in a non-costly environment.
Some decisions are binary on at least there surface. Should we
invade/have invaded Iraq? Yes or No? Why is a much more complex
question to ask and answer. I don't think it is a manner of the
number of choices but of the quality of the thinking and explanations
involved and most importantly of keeping enough respect/civility to
listen to one another.
I don't get the bit about needing to adopt an agenda/platform to back
one's decision on a question. I do not do so but only attempt to
choose among alternatives with what information, thinking and values
I can manage to bring to bear. Perhaps I am naive to assume this is
true of most people here.
- samantha
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