It disconcerts me that we can go to sporting games and watch opposing teams 'battle' each other and then make little effort to talk with one another about important political events and developments or even just our own political differences; it is as though we've given up on spaces for political discussion and the realization of power and completely surrendered ourselves to the exigencies and exhilarations of force (Arendt). Perhaps this speaks to the venue, but our very investment in some activities at the cost of others is telling.
What does it say that many of us have lost interest in seriously and respectfully discussing what is happening in our world and have instead found other outlets for our political contentions and disagreements? What does this say to the elimination of the space of the political?
A better question might be: have we lost the ability to discuss these matters respectfully and carefully such that we can actually learn from one another, learn from difference, and create a more bonded, communicative and learned community? This seems to speak to the eradication of public spaces and the radical expropriation of this space for private and kinship use. We are withdrawing into our homes and into ourselves in such a way that we are giving up on tension and disagreement, not just because we don't want to but because we don't even know how to stand it anymore. Because contention feels comparable to force, intuitively, but this is not so. There is the space of the political, where we may disagree but do so respectfully and through dialogue. And there is, outside of the space, but always laying in wait to threaten it, the use of force, which has and continues to endanger the political. We must not confuse the two, as our very way of live, and our ability to deal respectfully and democratically with difference, depends on it.
It is as though we have lost the art of posing the question of how to be critical of our society.
ReplyDeleteDo we raise critical thinkers? Do schools promote critical discussion, dialogue and political negotiation of the classroom or of other spaces? In churches, we follow orders and rigid doctrines. In companies, we follow orders at the risk of being fired, withholding dissent. There are so many spaces where we have no control over our lives and must simply stifle our own opinions and so, I guess, it's no wonder that the only place where we can 'let it out' is in the sporting arena, where there is really no political option anyways, there is just the option of force.
ReplyDelete