Few weeks ago a colleague of mine , who I used to work with in China, posted on social media a photo of an advertisement for FOX news found in the Wall Street Journal, with a prolonged and quite poignant commentary. Jason* expressed his concerns that those numbers given in the advert may be true. He went on to say:
‘ Blue collar Americans often tend to listen to FOX news. FOX is very much in favour of Trump and they were viciously anti-Democrat. Until I saw this advertisement I was unaware that FOX was so incredibly popular. We can only hope and pray that Americans will reject Trump and the hateful movement he inspires and blatantly encourages on almost a daily basis’.
Having just taught an academic course where critical thinking and critical evaluation were especially focused on, I asked a short question I would have most probably asked my students just couple of weeks before , namely whether those figures might be really believable- it’s a newspaper after all. Little did I know that Jason’s original comment and my simple question would start a very interesting and inspiring discussion, which, as I type, still seems to have its consequences. But I’ll get to that shortly…
Jason’s reply was long and thought-provoking…He replied he had asked himself the very same question too, yet his concerns were that those figures might be correct. He carried on talking about how America is currently divided and
‘is heading down the wrong path…’. ‘Even if one is not a citizen of the USA they should still be concerned. The right wing extremism is not isolated to America. I’m not optimistic about the next 3-5 years on the global stage.’
And I think it was this last sentence that caused that I felt this very strong need to defy. Let’s pause for a second…
I’m currently struggling to accept that there’s lots of shit going on in the world and struggling to accept that people choose not to learn from history. I’m struggling to accept that people seem to embrace this actively imposed divisions, often by the very system that was set up to unite, and they choose to turn a blind eye when others suffer. I’m struggling to accept that some people don’t see that when we’re divided and turned against each other , it’d be easier to manipulate us and to rob us from our humanity. I’m struggling to accept that populism seems to be valued more than facts. I’m even struggling to accept that I don’t feel so optimistic about the world at the moment either…
Yet this one sentence I read in Jason’s comment sparked something in me and suddenly, almost automatically I felt like my focus shifted from the negativity towards positivity. I acknowledged that indeed some countries in Europe have started observing the rise of right wing – and that includes, sadly, my own country– but I said that I
‘want to remain positive, although am very aware how difficult nearest future might be. It’s a pendulum. And a lot of people started uniting against this [right wing] movement, it’s pertinent to notice, acknowledge and focus on this [positive] side. People have got themselves out from lots of sticky situations, which sadly they’d created themselves in the first place, so I say let’s be hopeful, strong and positive and contribute what we can to what’s good, honest and simply human’.
Then another colleague joined our discussion, also commented on how divided [America] is. And then I said something that even further impacted on what I’ve been doing, including…my studies. I said
‘ public discourse, not shying away from difficult topics should be actively encouraged. As this doesn’t always come from the authorities, at least in my country, grassroots movements can be the key here. I’m allergic to division…’
And that was the point when another former colleague joined and talked about non-existence of discourse in public life. This narrative was very similar to what Brene Brown said in her ‘The Power of Vulnerability’ talk:
‘The other thing we do is we make everything that’s uncertain certain. Religion has gone from a belief in faith and mystery to certainty. I’m right, you’re wrong. Shut up. That’s it. Just certain. The more afraid we are, the more vulnerable we are, the more afraid we are. This is what politics looks like today. There’s no discourse anymore. There’s no conversation. There’s just blame. You know how blame is described in the research? A way to discharge pain and discomfort.’
And then the colleague asked me a very important question: how would you encourage public discourse? After further discussion about ‘alternative facts’, abandonment of rules of discourse, fundamentalism and general worrisome times we live in, I said that
‘sadly, I don’t have a magic wand and yes, it’d be extremely difficult to change that. However, there’s nothing that should prevent us from trying to restore that discourse. I can’t change the whole world, but what I can do is to encourage that discourse in my classroom, when I create teaching materials , discuss with students, don’t shy away from difficult and complex issues in the name of political correctness and so on. It’s important to re-learn how to talk and, perhaps even more importantly, how to listen. I can keep trying to do that when I’m teaching and teaching international students is a great place for that’.
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So what happened next? I’ll tell you. I’m currently doing my Master’s degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) and this semester I’m doing a double module: research and materials development. This discussion triggered by Jason’s post led me to start doing a research project on so called taboo topics, or, as they’re known in the ELT world, PARSNIP: politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, isms (e.g. atheism) and pork. I really believe that as a teacher I can do my bit and start involving international students in intercultural discourse on potentially sensitive and complex topics and start to (re-)learn how to talk and listen to each other with respect and open mind. My material development module will also include some of those ‘taboo’ topics . I want to learn how to confidently and respectfully approach PARSNIP , or any other complex/sensitive topics in order to support an ongoing, honest, open-minded and profound discourse. This is going to be my very practical contribution to ‘what’s good, honest and simply human’.
I’ll leave you with some questions to reflect on and, if you choose to do so, please leave your comments below- I’d like to encourage a deep, meaningful and open-minded discussion:
Do you think that avoiding discussions about challenging/sensitive/complex topics in the name of political correctness is a good thing to do?
Shouldn’t we instead start (re)learning how to engage in a meaningful, honest, respectful and open discourse?
What can you do to contribute to revamping honest and open-minded discourse?
What kind of practical steps can you take to help people become (re)united in our universal humanity, far beyond artificially created borders and divisions?
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* Jason is a real name of a real person, who inspired an interesting and I think important online discussion and, pretty much accidentally, contributed to my decision-making process regrading my research project. Oh, and he also gave me his consent to use a photo he’d taken and to quote his words. Thank you, Jason 🙂
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** Few more links:
Brene Brown ‘The Power of Vulnerability’ (TED.com)
Poland’s constitutional crisis reaches its climax
Poland’s Leader Finds an Ally in Trump, Even as He Brings Courts to Heel
Unrest continues as Poland’s government moves further to the right
Hi Karina, It’s good to be back at your blog. I feel like I can’t stop talking about these things to some extent. So yes. But I think talking about things is so much easier when we have a relationships. You can go back to those relationships first and find common ground second. I was curious about the source of the newspaper you mentioned though. I was googling that subject and, well, if you get your news from Fox…then of course, you’ll hear it’s the network Americans trust 🙂 But there are some other interesting discussions out there–saying that Fox has influence…but maybe not in the sense that everyone is watching it. When an election is decided by just a few votes, you don’t have to influence the whole country to make a difference.
Thank you for your comment 🙂 Yes, questioning those numbers was also a part of my original conversation. Nevertheless, despite the source of the information, I was inspired by where that original conversation has taken me now. I agree that having a relationship makes thing better in terms of having difficult discussions, so my question is whether we should refrain from them due to lack of (?) relationships with people, especially those with different views, or should we start (re)learning how to (re)build those relationships and (re)learn the art of proper discourse. I’m a fan of the latter!
Awesome blog post and initiative! Yes, there is a big problem when it comes to discussions about sensitive topics. It’s like people don’t come with an open mind, but with fixed and preconceived ideas that they’ve heard in or from the group they identify with – and that is a sure way to kill critical thinking and to not finding practical solutions to deal with the problems we have in today’s society.
Thanks for your valuable comment, Teodora! It’s indeed challenging to open our minds sometimes and get rid of those preconceptions you mentioned. So the question is now, what can you do now to contribute to the revival of meaningful public discourse 😉 ?