Civil Discourse

There are several people I refer to as “Internet friends.” I met them in a newsgroup I’ve belonged to for several years. All we had in common is that we were computer and Internet geeks (although our expertise varied), helping out the “newbies” and gathering in the “teachers’ lounge” to ask the primary question: “Don’t these people read?”

The discussions were wide-ranging: politics, music, sex, fantasy, God. The participants were mostly men, with a few women to keep it interesting. Most of us were American, though we had several Brits and one young German woman who had come to the U.S. as an exchange student. Some of us were straight, some of us were married, some of us have children.

I have never met any of these folks face-to-face, so if I bumped into them on the street I wouldn’t know it and neither would they. Yet I know as much about some of them as I know about the people I work with. More, even, because I’ve been “talking” with these folks longer.

Yesterday, one of these Internet friends contacted me because he’s concerned about another member. From there, we moved into a discussion about politics. He is liberal, in the classic sense; I am a classic small-government conservative. We had an extensive and polite discussion—a classic interchange of ideas.

By the end of the discussion, we found that we agreed on many points, disagreed on others, but still respected each other and valued our friendship. Neither of us wants friends who only mirror our positions. We do want friends who are able to respect our differences and who realize that we are not “looney” or “evil” for having them.

I’ve missed this type of discourse. One reason I don’t watch News Shows is because there is too much screaming at each other rather than debating. Speakers are interrupted and the moderator is trying to make points rather than clarifying them. I’m turned off by the Right and the Left when they behave like this.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a solution—my magic wand is out of spark and plot to take over the World hasn’t come to fruition. Once again, my influence is limited to my small pond. I hope the ripples travel far.