Fear of Speech
Peggy Noonan starts off with Ahmadinijad at Columbia, but then goes on to relate the same ‘fear of opposing voices’ to our domestic politics, a point that I think is even more interesting.
Domestically, the Democratic presidential candidates appear only before supportive groups. They don’t speak to antitax groups and talk about their own assumptions regarding tax policy. They don’t go to traditional values groups.
It’s all very controlled. And it’s unworthy of a great nation. When people say the campaign feels artificial, that’s what they mean. It’s not John Edwards’s hairspray or Hillary Clinton’s makeup. It’s that they give every sign of being afraid to speak and listen to those who haven’t been patted down by thought-cops for unacceptable views.
The Republicans are the same. An invitation to debate on Univision, the Spanish-language network? They have scheduling conflicts. What about the Log Cabin Republicans? No time right now.
How unserious.
Peggy claims that this is a failing of the ‘elites’ not of the general American public, but I am not so sure that she is right there. As the Anchoress noted in a post a couple of days ago:
In fact, the forums are a little like the Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. That mirror shows the viewer what he or she most wants to see - it shows one’s deepest heart’s desire - but recall Professor Dumbledore’s warning: “this mirror gives us neither knowledge or truth“. He warns that men have gone mad before it, mad in their obsessive fascination with the seductive illusion that “the perfect” (which can never be) is somehow attainable.
What I notice happening on both sides of the political spectrum is that left and right are falling into their mirrors and allowing themselves to be seduced by these absolutist dreams - a world where no principals are ever compromised and everything goes along just as each side thinks it should all go along. That’s not reality.
Just as politicians are for more comfortable in an environment where everyone agrees with them, most of us are as well.
It is an interesting fact that globalization and increased communications have led to an increase in ‘tribalism,’ mostly as a refuge from an increasingly uncertain world. Associating only with like minded individuals is the same phenomenon.
I try to at least obtain a basic understanding of what my ideological opponents are thinking, and preferably understand at least a little why they think that way. I don’t claim to always succeed, and certainly I do spend more time, and probably enjoy more, engaging with those that I agree with. Still, I think at least making an effort is crucial to having a balanced perspective on the issues that confront us.
