Sunday, September 29, 2019

Agreeing to Disagree

I picked up a commentary last week via FOCUS columnist Jan Fleischhauer.  I have to admit, it's an interesting topic and five-star commentary.  The basic discussion?  We are reaching a stage in society where people with a particular viewpoint....ONLY hangout and chat with people of the same viewpoint.  So they sit around.....patting each other on the back, and condemn the opposing viewpoint.

It's noticeable not only in Germany, but throughout Europe, and into the US as well.

There's not a week that goes by....that you don't see a public forum chat show on German public TV, and the guests are invited (arranged) to sell a particular viewpoint.  You will never see a show where it's a moderator and two guests of opposing viewpoints.  It'll typically be a moderator and five guests.....with pattern set mostly to be three on one side, one neutral person, and one single opposing person.  By the end, you (if you attempted to watch this) are left with a overwhelming sales pitch to buy the side with the more discussion, and not the one single guy's viewpoint.

Fleischhauer makes a good point in this commentary, that this change in society is not helping things. If you went back fifty years ago, there just weren't that many things on people's minds that required a position to be taken.  If you gauged the typical person today.....he or she has a minimum of twenty-five topics....which they have a position. 

Vegan diets?  Years ago....if you wanted to do it....fine, you just did it.  Now, it's a sales pitch.  Diesel cars?  There are some people completely sold on them and believe it to such a degree, that it's a position, with anti-diesel enthusiasts on the other side.  BREXIT is a great example of position points.  Toss in climate change, immigration, Putin, and even Star Wars or the Marvel universe.

Any change on the horizon?  No.  If anything, we are likely to double our position points, and become even more disagreeable. 

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