Blog Post 2:Jerry Straks Arguement Culture E-Letter, Zack Newman

Deborah Tannen and Jerry Strak agree almost completely in the view that our society is based almost solely on arguing and polarization. When it comes to this view I am in one-hundred percent agreement with both Strak and Tannen. The most obvious and controversial example that comes to mind would be our involvment in the Iraq situation in the Middle East, but conflict strikes much closer to home in many ways. Think of Affirmative Action, abortion, Gay Rights, or even smaller issues like drinking ages. On almost every issue that comes to mind we are split down the middle with only two sides to every issue; for or against. Two sides to an issue is far too few to approach anything because we don't live in a completely black and white or 2-D world. Our world is full of color and dimensions we don't even know about so any limit to sides of an arguement would be absolutely obsurd. When we make things so black and white it is obvious that WE HAVE ALL created this culture. Everyone is guilty of taking sides and aiding to this "arguement culture" that exists in our present world. Since we are all guilty it is obvious that I have aided to this and so have you. No one is free from responsibility. I personally can account on several times a day in which I have taken one stance on a subject matter or only saw one single side to an arguement. The most intense way to reverse or counteract our personal affects to this societal trend would be like that of the efforts of Deborah Tannen, but no everyone is capable of that. Another, less extreme, way to counteract the trend would be to take into personal account that we must all be able to see many sides to an issue, whether or not we agree with them, we must accept that each issue has infinite angles of approach.





Click to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e-i2D-2GAc


I feel that this video supports my claim that our world has become overwhelmed and consumed with the feeling that there are only two stances to each arguement and issue; good and bad, wrong or right. In this video you will see the extreme case of two sides becoming so consumed with being right that they resort to all out war.