Dialing Down Heated Rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric defined: the art of persuasion,

one of the three ancient arts of discourse.

 

The best thing about this election appears to be that the heated rhetoric seems to be dialing down.

 

This doesn’t mean we don’t still have serious disagreements on policies.

 

What it does mean is that maybe, just maybe, we’re becoming less defensive (and less offensive, too).

 

I don’t expect to change many Trump cultists’ minds, but at least their views, actions, and perspectives will become less normalized so cooler minds on both sides of the aisle, and in neighborhoods, can prevail.

 

We need to find ways to co-exist even with people who think coexistence is a dirty word. Otherwise, we can’t truly deem our species “civil-ized.”

 

We need to find ways to remain civil to each other.

 

In some cases, that will mean separating from un-civil, cultish authoritarian loved ones.

 

But in most cases, it won’t be a bridge too far.

 

Disagreeing over policy, and letting a majority of voters decide, is part and parcel of our republican democracy.

 

That’s why everyone needs to participate.  And by participate, I don’t mean “other-bashing.”  I mean, meeting to civilly discuss our differences and identifying the areas in which we can compromise and agree on ways forward, ways that elevate our nation and its citizens… all of them, without regard to color, creed, orientation, or gender.

 

A U.S. that works chiefly only for a subset of the richest and whitest males is a U.S. that teeters on the unrest of its marginalized and abused serfs.  All the serfs have to do is decide unilaterally to stop working for a solid week to a month to quickly render the elite toothless and buckling.  We workers create their wealth, so they should be sharing more of it with us instead of hoarding it and using it to buy the politicians who are supposed to be representing all of us, not just their wealthy donors.

 

Education is key here — education without a cudgel.  Logic. Economics divorced from elitist ideologies. We need to teach people how to think, not what to think.  Too many don’t know how to do that, so they follow the leaders who most emulate and endorse their viewpoints, policies and prejudices.

 

Today’s intercourse isn’t true rhetoric: it’s bitter, abusive name-calling. It causes separation.

 

True rhetoric is the art of persuasion.  It involves a lot of listening and discernment, and the ability to say, “I understand what you’re saying there. Have you looked at it another way? Let’s discuss this earnestly and respectfully.”

 

It’s always easier to posture and shout, to denigrate and dismiss, to ignore and marginalize other perspectives.  Babies and bullies do that.  The rest of us shouldn’t, and mustn’t, if we ever want to reach a point where we can feel truly safe with each other.

 

Fear has driven a lot of the bad-mouthing on both sides. Catastrophe is what both sides envision “the other side” delivering to their most cherished goals and dreams.

 

Fear dies with enlightened education. Which is why free universal education, from preschool through higher education concerns, keeps fear-mongering politicians up at night. Without their chief weapon, they become impotent.  No one listens to their nonsense. They become dinosaurs instead of dictators.

 

Civilization demands informed, educated, and compassionate citizens who regularly practice discernment, the weighing and measuring of what is said to us by our so-called  representatives, and then how they actually vote on the same policies (often in direct opposition to what they said!).

 

We need to vote out the obstructionists who keep the government working just fine for THEM and hardly at all for us, the people who pay the taxes to fund  governmental policies.

 

We need to educate ourselves and hold them responsible (and ourselves responsible) for funding our way to a more inhabitable planet and policies that protect and lift all boats.

 

To the extent we do that is the extent to which we will be able to survive and thrive during the coming decades.

 

This is no time to shirk our responsibility to become (or remain) responsible citizens, neighbors, relatives and friends.

 

There is no “other”  human being. We’re all the same species–one that can redeem, and one that can destroy.

 

Let’s commit the better angels of our nature to the coming years so we can deliver a safer, saner legacy to all beings (animal and human) to come.

 

Any other outcome will seal our mutual doom.

 

The consequences of failing to deliver our best couldn’t be higher.