Shhhh ... I'm Talking About a Revolution

I’ve had about enough.  Haven’t you?  It is way past time to change the tenor of the discussion on a host of issues.  First of all, a bit of respect and humility needs to be interjected into the debate … into every debate.  We need to stop tolerating the use of insults and snide remarks, whether they come from political candidates or ordinary folks on the internet.  We need to be more empathetic (now that’s a family value worth talking about).  Second, we need to follow up with a rediscovery of cooperation, collaboration, and compromise.   Why have we allowed working together to get such a bad name?  Individual rights are wonderful things, but we don’t have to fight to the death on every issue to maintain them and we can’t forget that in the end we are a society and not just a random gathering of individuals.  Third, we need to insist upon the use of logic and reason.  If you want to insist that evolution is unproven and we have no impact on our environment, you should be laughed out of public life.  If you want to make an argument, you simply have to support your conclusion with real premises.  You have to offer some proof.   It should never be enough to attack your opponent’s patriotism or play on peoples fear by invoking bogeymen like big government.  Fourth, we have to keep an eye on the long term impacts of what we do in the here and now.  Job creation is great, but what kind of jobs are we talking about and at what price do they come?  If we were to put a priority on these four things, everything could be different.  It seems to me like it’s worth a shot.  Whatever we are doing now certainly isn’t working.  So, I am on a new crusade.  I want to encourage folks to insist on empathy, cooperation and compromise, logic and reason, and consideration of the big picture.  To put it simply, we deserve at least that much.