Tolerance and Intolerance

Tolerance and Intolerance

In her “This I Believe” essay, “Finding Our Common Ground”, Robin Mize expresses much of the angst about sharing political views with family members that are at odds with their views. I totally related to what she had to say. My own frustration was a major catalyst for me to create this blog.

I find myself not only at odds with some of my friends and family [though, assuredly, not all], but what troubles me most is how viscerally upset I get at some of the ideas propounded by educated and reasoning relatives and friends. I feel my blood pressure rising, and struggle as I might, my frustration becomes visibly evident. Why can I not just change the subject and move on to converse about something else less troubling to me? Partly it is because “they” won’t let it rest.

But why can I not calmly probe with questions that will elucidate the fallacy of “their” reasoning? Partly it is because they counter with more and more astounding “facts” and unfounded assertions to the point where no matter what reason I attempt to bring to bear on the issue is buried under an avalanche of falsity. Partly it is because I am not armed with facts that I can spout with equal surety to their assertions. So what to do?

I cannot recount a recent such incident accurately in detail, so I won’t attempt to do so. I just know that I handled it poorly. The assertion was the continuing belief by many that Obama was not born in Hawaii and is not legally a U.S. citizen. Because I knew I would be too agitated and frustrated to discuss the assertion rationally, I immediately said, “I don’t even want to talk about this. I don’t believe it for a minute and the idea is so preposterous to me that I don’t even want to talk about it.” I said all of this in an agitated tone of voice and was upset with myself even in the moment, but I was out of control. The follow-up comment was something to the effect [short version], “but it’s written right here.” My response, “What makes you think that what is written is true?” With a chuckle, the response was essentially, “Why would anyone lie about this in a published article of this authority?” Indeed, I have to ask myself, “Why?” and not have an answer except “Why would Hillary Clinton let him get by with it, or John McCain, or any of the Supreme Court justices, or any of hundreds of capable foes to Obama that would stand to gain by his being so fundamentally disqualified?” [Resisting the temptation to add, “Are they more stupid than the writer of the article?”

Enough said about my own failings to remain calm and self-assured at such moments. More important is the ideal to be strived for and eloquently described by Robin in her essay that I heard on The Bob Edwards Radio Show. She is a self described liberal Democrat in a family of conservative Republicans. [She even calls them “the enemy.”] She concludes her essay with the statement, “It seems to me that here in my family is an essential element of our democracy: We agree to disagree. Our ability not only to accept, but to respect, our differences is our common ground.” I do not yet have the ability to accept, much less respect, differences based upon what I believe are preposterous assumptions and assertions. Hopefully, I can at least learn to calmly say, “Let us agree to disagree on this subject.” That is not much common ground, but it seems like the responsible [response able] thing to do. Responsibility in such instances will have to await discussion in a future post.

Day One

For some time now I have thought about blogging, but this week, in a conversation with my son Stephen, he suggested that I might want to start one because of a comment I made to him about doing some daily writing in long hand called "The Morning Pages." I think he found it curious that anyone would want to bother with long hand considering the convenience of word processing, not to mention the other benefits such as publishing and editing the text. But, a great deal of the purpose of TMP is to break out of writer's block, or at least to keep thoughts flowing, and to not worry about publishing. In fact, TMP purposes to not publish, but keep the writing personal, private and free from worry about criticism from either self or others.

A blog, on the other hand, is usually published for all the world to see, or at least friends and family, and subject to potential criticism from self and others. I could keep it private, but that seems to defeat the purpose and the benefits regardless of the downside.

Once I decided to pursue creating a Blog, the first obstacle was a title. I felt the need for something with meaning and something that would endure, but I am usually lousy at coming up with such ideas. Then, in TMP, I was reflecting on the past and my varied interests and I remembered being labeled as a "Renaissance Man" by one of my colleagues. At the time, I was flattered even though I did not know what a Renassance Man was. Upon being told that a Renaissance Man is "a man of diverse interests," I felt that the label fit and I was happy to belong to a category! Today I hesitate to use it because new learning makes me believe it applies to a person not only of diverse interests, but also of considerable knowledge and skill in diverse subjects. Diverse interests yes, diverse expertise? - not so much.

Then today, in researching more about Renaissance Man I discovered the terms "polymath" and "polyhistor" and their application to the concept of what might more correctly be termed "universal man." I especially enjoyed Aristotle's thought: "For an educated man should be able to form a fair off-hand judgment as to the goodness or badness of the method used by a professor in his exposition. To be educated is in fact to be able to do this; and even the man of universal education we deem to be such in virtue of his having this ability."

Now, even as I write this, it occurs to me that what I am really talking about is being a "man of universal education." Aha! Yes indeed. Hence the title "The Education of Wade Austin."

Now, the purpose of this blog is to both share and continue my education. Writing, speaking, conveying understanding in whatever form or genre serves to deepen understanding, if not discard it when it is foolish. It also serves to seek new input from others - to create dialog. My hope is that this blog will serve as a forum for expressing my own understanding [or lack of understanding] of a broad range of subjects, for seeking and accepting input from others as a means of increasing my understanding of those subjects, and participating in discourse about them.

As time goes by, I hope I will find a few friends that will bear with my struggle to educate myself and share the journey with me. I suspect there will be some that endure for awhile but will tire of my progress or be consumed with other dialogs more important to them. In any case, I look forward to this journey with a tiny bit of trepidation, but a whole lot of optimism, because learning is about truth, and truth genders to freedom, and freedom, while it may experience seasons of fear ultimately leads to being at peace with oneself. What more could one wish for? Ah, a question for another time.