The end of debate
Something is clearly amiss when elected officials refuse to engage constituents with whom they disagree.
“Give a boy a hammer and everything he meets has to be pounded.”
Abraham Kaplan (“The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science”, 1964)
Greetings!
With so much going on in the world, perhaps we could spare a moment to reflect on the vital importance of changing hearts and minds (starting with our own). This week we celebrate our inner child, hear directly from a Canadian trucker, watch the decline of democracy, take a stance against monomania, and convince Klansmen to surrender their robes.
REACHING THROUGH: In 2015, Ukrainian artist Alexander Milov delighted Burning Man‘s festival-goers with a sculpture featuring two children who are reaching for each other through the wire frames of adult figures sitting back-to-back. When the sun disappeared each night of the 8-day event, the children within the sculpture would light up. In Milov’s own words, the piece is “a symbol of purity and sincerity that brings people together and gives a chance of making up when the dark time arrives”. He titled his creation ‘Love’.
Image: AeroZakaz Аэрозаказ
Fast forward to February 2022 … Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron meet at the Kremlin to discuss military stand-off on the Ukrainian border.
Image: KREMLIN/AP
ESSENTIAL WORKERS: Imagine that you spend your days driving thousands of miles to deliver goods across state lines and country borders. You are by yourself most of the time, while making sure that our globalized trading and distribution system functions like clockwork. Then imagine being told that you can only perform your job as long as you undertake a medical procedure you don’t deem necessary for yourself, and that you refrain from doing your job (quarantine) for two weeks after each long haul. Now imagine that you decide to stand up against such policy by staging a protest, and get instantly accused of being a Nazi, White Supremacist and Insurrectionist who is trying to overthrow the government. And now imagine that one of your demands is to sit at the table with political leaders, but the Prime Minister responds by fleeing the scene (first citing security concerns and then delegitimizing the protest as “an attack on democracy”). In this video, Freddie Sayers takes us on a quick on-the-ground tour of Ottawa’s Freedom Convoy protest and interviews Tim, one of the truckers taking part in it. Money quote: “we are here for our children, and if you can’t understand that, get someone in the room with us who does”.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Global democracy continued its precipitous decline in 2021, according to the latest report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The annual survey, which rates the state of democracy across 167 countries on the basis of five measures - electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture, and civil liberties - finds that more than a third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule while just 6.4% enjoy a full democracy. The global score fell from 5.37 to a new low of 5.28 out of 10, the biggest annual decline since 2010 (following the global financial crisis). For the second year in a row, authoritarian pandemic responses (such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, along with other intrusive and coercive measures) were the biggest source of strain on democratic freedom around the world. Latin America recorded the biggest downgrade of any region since the start of the index. Spain was downgraded to a “flawed democracy”. The sharp decline in North America’s average score was driven mainly by a deterioration in Canada, though the U.S. is experiencing similar afflictions. Download the full report HERE.
MONOMANIACS: In this thoughtful essay, co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt, explains how monomania (an exaggerated and unhealthy obsession with one thing) is a hugely influential factor in making groups not only illiberal but stupid, as well. According to him, monomaniacs oftentimes demand that their focal value becomes the object of devotion within their networks, organizations or institutions, utilizing intimidation and cruelty to make sure that every single initiative is filtered through that lens. In a “prestige economy”, where people compete for status in relation to a fixed set of values and adherence to a belief, one gains points by publicly attacking those who step out of line. And, lo and behold, they react strongly and sometimes violently to those who ask questions or present alternate views, which are said to be “dangerous” and even “violent”. This moral policing prevents the group from thinking well or changing its mind in response to new evidence. Hence, smart people can create stupid groups when they bind themselves together in a monomaniacal community. Find the article HERE.
Image: © Squidmediaro | Dreamstime
FLICK OF THE WEEK: He did what??? Daryl Davis, an accomplished musician, a piano player who has played all over the world with legends like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry, developed a strange and controversial hobby: to meet and befriend members of the KKK, many of whom had never even met a black person. The documentary film, Accidental Courtesy, takes the viewer on a journey from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to Memphis, from Alabama to Ferguson, Missouri, as Daryl recounts the entwined history of black America and popular music, and pursues an answer to the question, “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”