Stop Yelling at Me!

I don’t like it when people yell at me.

This was my revelatory awareness that I arrived at last night when discussing Foucault’s essay on the Enlightenment last night with a friend of mine. We were talking about attitude et al (see earlier blog post), conflicting truths, and discourse. My friend wondered about a cartoonist who suggested a day when everyone would draw a picture of Mohammad to make a point that everything is in the realm of satire and some fanatics should not be able to dictate what one could or could not draw or critique. In response the fanatical folks targeted her for death and the like because she suggested it might be ok to draw a satirical picture of their holy prophet.

This is an example of opposing truths. On the one hand one is saying that everything is up for satire. On the other hand one is saying that there are some things which are outside of the bounds of satire.

Now for discourse. The situation is intractable because the discourse was directed at usurping each other’s truth. If the cartoonist called an Imam, even a radical, fanatical one and asked to talk about the possibilities of drawing Mohammad, why it would be wrong and so on things might be different. If the fanatical folks called the cartoonist and asked to talk about her point and wanted to discuss potential possibilities and so on things might be different. The discourse of both conversations is one of exploration and understanding rather than one of conquest. Yet the reality is a discourse of conquest directly challenging the truth that the other holds.

The reason why I do not like it when people yell at me, when “discussing” certain topics is because it is usually a discourse of conquest. Take the hot-button topics (homosexuality, abortion, etc.), the level of discourse is one of conquest not one of exploration and understanding. The yelling is understandable because one’s truth is on the line either to prove superiority or to resist the attack.

This is not the discourse I want to engage in because I do not think it is in any way productive. I would much rather learn, understand, and explore and from there see where we should go.

So, if you should ever see me in a bar, don’t be surprised if you hear me say, “Let’s roll down our sleeves, put on our jackets, go inside and talk this out like human beings.”