Come Let Us Reason Together

"Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob."
Isaiah 41:21

"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error."
"Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
Thomas Jefferson

Bringing out the big guns in leading with these quotations; they invoke the authority of no less than the ultimate 'founding Father' and a United States founding father. It give me comfort as I venture into what at times has come to feel like the 'no mans land' of disputation. While I addressed this recently in a comment, given the potential volatility of the topic of fascism, and the passions that run deep regarding the historic figure of President Reagan, it seems a good time to stop and elaborate on that particular comment.

I wrote about the pleasure of argument, instead of hateful argument. One of the best examples was a comment from KRod under an older posting of mine, "First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage", where he 'went all Tina Turner' on me with a rewrite of the Lyrics "What's Love Got to Do with It". It was clever and it was charming, and I was caught off guard enough by it that I had to get up, go get another cup of coffee, and regroup my thoughts to respond, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Very little in argumentation can put me off balance the way that did; I laughed out loud at my monitor in delight, and applauded it.

This was in sharp contrast to other exchanges from both sides of topics that traded insults to people AND to arguments, instead of being specifically critical of failings or weakness in the substance of the facts or reasoning being advanced.

I do not wish in any measure to diminish the passions of this or any other topic. But I do wish again to insist on the civility, and the enjoyment of cordial disagreement. Both Pen and I have experienced first hand what it is like to be the minority dissenting opinion on other sites; all the more reason to expressly welcome and encourage that dissent here. I have elaborated elsewhere on all that it adds, so I won't repeat myself.

What I didn't say that still needs saying is that it is not a weakness to acknowledge a point well made, an argument well reasoned, or a fact well researched by 'the other side'. Disagreement and /or criticism is stronger for being both specific to an argument, and polite rather than personally insulting. Calling an argument stupid is not a good response; better is to point out how and where it is faulty, preferably supported by objective fact.

This is a good place to point out that the more objective, the less subjective, the less distinctly biased information is, the stronger it is and the better it supports a conclusion or an argument. The more information is first hand, and the less it is filtered through second and third hand ideology, the better it supports a position or a contention. To the degree that a supporting item is NOT, the greater the basis, even the necessity, for it to be challenged. While that kind of challenge may cause a person to feel put on the spot, that is still very VERY different than a personal attack on the challenged.

There has been ample disagreement on topics here, and some surprising agreement as well, unexpected points of agreement. The more we are able to find agreement in fact, and in how we disagree, and the less that we allow ideology to be divisive, the more we have a common ground for the meeting of minds. Without that common ground, without that meeting of minds, we have an argument of shouting echoes rather than a direct engagement of individuals.

Time to tuck the soap box back under the laundry tub, and go back to my own happy, dull digging into research on a variety of topics for future writing. My closing thought is that when I log on to Penigma, I envision a seasonally appropriate gathering. In July, sitting around on comfortable outdoor furniture with a platter of barbecue and the appropriate beverages like beer or iced tea or lemonade, augmenting rowdy, raucous, LOUD conversation, discussions with passion and intensity. To the degree that there are fewer voices, there is less intensity and passion and .... less fun in the gathering. My parting thought is a toast to the more the merrier, and to wit and cleverness, even humor, to go with the passionate points of view.

"He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave."
William Drummond