The Dying Art of Disagreement
The speaker, Bret Stephens starts by naming an impressive list of speakers from both sides of the political spectrum that have been disinvited to speak at universities because of audience members and the public no longer knowing how to behave in the face of dissent.
Stephens begins the speech by stating the importance of the saying I disagree,
"These are the words that define our individuality, give us our freedom, enjoin our tolerance, enlarge our perspectives, seize our attention, energize, our progress, make our democracies real, and give hope and courage to oppressed people everywhere." (Stephens)
He also goes on to point out that this is a time in our history that we are more divided than we have been for decades, pointing out that we "disagree about racial issues, bathroom policies, healthcare laws, and of course the 45th president." (Stephens) These divisions have caused us to develop our worlds where we get our news from sources we trust and "facts" from places we deem trustworthy creating "fake news" and "alternative facts."
In the speech Stephens lays out how to disagree with someone:
"To disagree well you must first understand well. You have to read deeply, listen carefully, watch closely. You need to grant your adversary moral respect; give him the intellectual benefit of the doubt; have sympathy for his motives and participate empathically with his line of reasoning. Ans you need to allow for the possibility that you might yet be persuaded of what he has to say." (Stephens)
These are only a few of the excellent points that Stephens makes in his speech, and if you can you might want to read the whole text, it's not too long, and it's great! Here is the link:
The Dying Art of Disagreement
Comments
Post a Comment