NB, a personal note for you. I promised years ago to explain something to you but the argument got so overheated that I had to break it off.(perhaps you remember my claim that there was a different type of knowledge besides 'facts'?) and then more recently committed to you that I would write something 'good' about our problem communicating, which I suddenly realized I had not fulfilled when you pointed it out. I am going to unpack my viewpoint over a series of short 'articles'. Full disclosure: the initial inspiration for it was the deteriorated relationship between you and Mensch, and also our inability to explain our first principles to each other. But really the essays are about every person and the relationships they/we have. As such I am aware that it isnt at all germane to this website, but you get first crack at it. You get first chance to criticize/reject. Or feel free to delete this after you read it and wont be offended.
Until We Have Faces ~~ ozarkmichael
Welcome to this introduction for my essay series.
It is evident to all that having a productive political argument is more difficult today than ever. We might assume that the overheated arguments arise from our opponent's lack of data (but they think the same about us), or the willful blindness of our opponents (while they view us as willfully blind and see themselves as strongly committed to truth). There is a cost to these assumptions on all sides. The field of verbal battle is strewn with the wreckage of old friendships, leaving only the echo of mutual recriminations. We also see the wreckage of politeness leaving only a twisted tangle of intolerance which serves to cordon the enemy so that he cannot approach us.
Lets reflect a moment. Is this a fight over facts? Do people become angry when they disagree about whether 8 x 7 = 56? Do friends part as enemies and string up entangling barbed wire between them because one wont admit that Boise is the capitol of Idaho?
On its surface it is a battleground of facts, where data is invoked like heavy artillery, but the noise and smoke of battle masks the real source of the conflict: our hidden presuppositions. It is a fight involving something deeper than we realize which we never examine and so we almost dont have words for it. These presuppositions are buried so deeply that each side talks past the other, to the point that the same word means a different thing to each side. Thomas Sowell (an economist on the Right) calls the opposing set of presuppositions a "Conflict of Visions". Jonathan Haidt (a sociologist on the Left) would call each side a "Matrix" where the concepts of morality are different. Emmanuel Levinas (philosopher) argues that the foundational problem is that we are failing responsibility to the Face of the Other. These authors (among others) offer insights into why our arguments become counterproductive at best, and dehumanizing at worst. .
One thing we already understand: ticking off each issue and arguing about them devolves into "biting and devouring each other", so there is no progress on even the most alarming issues. It is true within our little community on the internet, but it is also true in the wider world. Without progress on those issues, I think we all know that in a short time it will come down to mere force, where every dissenter must be dehumanized and defaced. I don't want that for me, and I don't want it for you either no matter whatever else we disagree about.
The goal of these essays is to get down to the bottom line, stripped of issues, stripped of doctrine, stripped even of faith, in order to discover a "Vision" of humankind so we understand ourselves and each other in a more human way.
Next essay will compare two types of knowledge. The first type of knowledge is the acquisition of scientific data, the articulation of facts, and rational planning. The second type of knowledge is also vital: the human experience of orienting ourselves in the world, especially towards other people. It could be argued that as a society we are all losing that 'human experience knowledge' no matter how much scientific data we utilize against our opponents. This is a loss that has been worsening for decades, and the loss has accelerated now. Like a child wearing a mask in a masked community, until we have faces we are not gaining that vital human knowledge from each other. This will be the topic of my next essay.
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