Bring on Politics, Sex and Religion
A colleague the other day was trying to prepare a speech for a public-speaking group she's part of called 'Toastmasters'. She always seems to have a great time there meeting people and also learning how to present more confidently and speak in front of a crowd. She was chatting to me in the tea room about what topic she could present on. I suggested something to do with the politics as the election is fairly topical right now. She smiled and said that much as she would like to discuss a political issue, the group has a rule that you can basically talk about anything - including who should have Masterchef - as long as it's not politics, sex and religion! She and I agreed that that leaves out some of the most interesting topics. To me it all seems very Australian - not wanting to engage in a public context about anything potentially controversial. After all Politics, Sex and Religion are the traditional 3 topics one avoids discussing in polite Anglo company. With the people who I hang out with though we discuss these things fairly frequently and so it got me thinking about why you would want to ban discussing these.My feeling is that a lot of people in Australia are afraid of disagreeing with others and so want to avoid potentially contentious topics. Being argumentative and disagreeing with someone is not something that is seen as positive - leave that to the French, or New Yorkers. I think people are scared of causing offence - either they themselves or someone else who's participating in a conversation. At the heart of it, I think there's a fundamental misundesrtanding. Many people confuse disagreeing, perhaps passionately, with someone about an idea, with offending them and then being uncomfortable in their company. I think you can disagree fundamentally on an issue but still treat the other person with dignity and respect.This discomfort with intellectual disagreement is not healthy. Avoiding controversial discussion allows people to keep their views quarantined and could result in their never being challenged to consider someone else's opinion and adjust their own perspective. Sure, they could read a book or watch a youtube video by someone with a different opinion. But the process of exchanging ideas in person, through conversation, allows for a connection to be created, ideas exchanged, reframed, reconsidered, and for some serious learning to occur. Among all this discussion, the ideal topic for her talk about struck me. I suggested that she talk about why the restriction within the group from discussing Politics, Sex and Religion is misguided and that if they had more confidence and trust in each other, a presentation on Politics, Sex and Religion could be just as positive, if not more so, than one on the merits of the different Masterchef contestants.
Posted
by Michael
