14 thoughts on “Diversity and Dissent”

  2. i really enjoyed this short time capsule. I have always been one in the state of dissent against “current truths that can never change” and a lover of diversity. Today I see a lot of dissent about the existing and expanding diversity, and most of it is propaganda. This is dissent from the conservative mind, which has been shown clinically to view a world that is scary and dangerous, and not one with potential dangerous issues that must be understood and managed. These are dangerous times for diversity.

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    • I agree with you, Wayne, that conservatives (at least in recent American history) have never appreciated the values of diversity and dissent, but I fear that many liberals today have also abandoned those values — especially on college campuses. Many of the young liberals I engage are remarkably intolerant of any dissent from the party line, which shocks my 60s liberal sensibility — hence the rhetorical frame of the meme. I think these young progressives have good intentions deep down, but by preferring to impose restraints rather than obliterate them, and to approach others with a judgmental approach rather than a wide-open embrace, they are inadvertently steering the herd away from the progressive promised land. Thus, this meme is an inside check on certain forces within the revolution, like the Who’s “We Don’t Get Fooled Again” or the Beatles’s “Revolution” (but without the fine musical accompaniment).

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    • Thanks, jlouisemac. Sometimes I hear my younger liberal brothers and sisters and it seems like the air being slowly released from a balloon. But I’m hopeful. Every generation has to find its way. And one day the Age of Aquarius will hit, restraints will be blasted away, and the cacophonous chaos of hippie balloons set free. My latest pseudo-astrologer memo says 2021.

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  6. Excellent message, Gary.

    Freedom must be exercised, like a muscle, or it becomes atrophied and ultimately useless. Respect for others is one such exercise.

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    • Yes. Exercising freedom doesn’t simply mean being assertive; it means enthusiastically setting a place at the table for those who disagree with you. That’s the “respect for others” part that I think today’s liberals struggle with as much as conservatives. But I anticipate a groundswell of people who are trapped by neither liberal nor conservative party lines, who are tired of having to think “this” way or “that” way but are ready to open up to a chaotic plurality of viewpoints. The next backlash will be against liberals and conservatives alike. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Then maybe we’ll have our Age of Aquarius 🙂

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