Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Remonstrance"
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| [a] Round and round RF
This is part of a
multi-post series dealing with the Newtown school shootings and American political culture. Click below for other posts in the series:
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One of the most misunderstood things about the concept of remonstrance is the risk, the pain, and the challenge of speaking out when we know that our voices will be misunderstood, attacked, or demeaned.
You may think that this is a misprint.
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| [b] Misap(prehension) RF |
How could that be misunderstood (I hear you cry)? Anyone who has ever had to "bite her tongue" or work up the courage to challenge a boss (or professor) knows that the pressure not to do so is enormous. And that is precisely my point. What is misunderstood is that it is (kind of) "risky." No, it is much, much worse than that. It is terribly risky, and there are a dozen rationalizations for backing down for every one to speak out.
There are so many ways to avoid speaking out that our language is filled with them.
Lose the battle; win the war.
Keep your powder dry.
Keep the peace.
Live to fight another day.
Turn the other cheek.
And so on...
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| [c] Blocked RF |
For the moment, I choose not to focus on the pugilistic tone of many such phrases. That is startling enough, but there is more, and it is troubling. Keeping the peace seems to rank so high(ly) in our social lives that we just go on and on and on in a profoundly dissatisfying kind of still life—never rocking the boat, and never risking our advantage (or relative disadvantage) in electoral politics.
We still ourselves.
As regular readers know, Round and Square tries very hard not to be "political." It remains so today. Still, sometimes the most political thing we can do is simply to argue for more conversation. Call it political, if you want, but asking for conversation is only political if some people don't want any.
If that's the case, I'm political.
I call it the very stuff we do on these pages every day. How can we analyze the back-and-forth of Chinese factional politics (and remonstrance) in the eleventh century and turn away from the lack of such engagement here, right before our eyes? Well, I can't. All I am saying is think. Then converse. If it was good enough for Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, it should be good enough for us (not to mention Mayor Bloomberg and Charlton Heston, sort of).
I seek "conversation" not because I am apolitical, but rather because I am absolutely disgusted by the lack of engagement I am seeing on some of the most important cultural and political issues of our time. I study "remonstrance" for a living. Remonstrance is a peculiar kind of "conversation," but it is important. Where is it these days? In the wake of a tragedy of monumental proportion, I am asking a very slightly different question from the ones I have heard in the last few days. I ask only this:
Where is the debate?
Where is the conversation?
Where is the remonstrance?
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| [d] Pockets RF |
If you answer "it's everywhere," you have missed my point. I don't mean "today" and I don't mean "in certain pockets of the country." I don't even mean "between the obvious factions." I mean...three weeks ago (and three weeks from now)...and all over the country, in every school, family, and organization—and (this is most important of all) within the "factions."
A profound tragedy has gotten some of this going again. I am only (at this point) looking for something basic—remonstrance and conversation. A version of this ideal should be obvious to anyone who has read the key documents of American history: let's stop sitting still and jump start the "conversation."
It will be messy.
All "sides" have opinions. So be it. All I know is that I haven't heard many "sides" between January 2011 and this past Friday. I have not heard much nuance. That's what I mean by "where is the "debate," "conversation," and remonstrance?" I'll have a little more to say about it tomorrow.
In the meantime, could we just pry out a little reflection? Maybe we could move beyond "ban 'em all" versus "...my cold, dead hands"...and actually do some thinking? What a concept.
It sure beats just waiting for the next news cycle in a pathetic, broken, political culture.
This is part of a multi-post series dealing with the Newtown school shootings and American political culture. Click below for other posts in the series:
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| [e] Fragmented RF |
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