A Funny Thing Happened…
In this post, Brian raised a great question:
Watching this play out, I wonder if we engage in the same behavior on sites like BraveHumans? We have the keys in our hands. What do we want to do with them?
I let the question linger for a bit, because it intrigued me. Finally, early this past weekend, I found some text that I believe applies generally to the question Brian raised:
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?…You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Where were they? A prior point in the text says they were in the marketplace.
What do they do? Talk about and listen to the latest ideas.
Why? Because they like it.
What do they do with this information? We don’t know for sure, but my interpretation is “not much”; the goal is to hear the ideas, but not necessarily to engage a position or act upon them. For as active as the discussion could be, the result is passive. Later in the same text, the Greeks tell the speaker, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” More talking; more, “Hmm, I think I understand” or “I don’t get it.”
After reviewing right-wing blogs, left-wing blogs, and op-ed blogs for the past year, as well as regularly perusing a number of apolitical blogs, I believe that most blogs fit the description of the Greek marketplace. Ideas are exchanged; if we want to hear more, we ask for more information. If we are amused or bemused, we can join the conversation. If we don’t have any vested interest in the topic, we can lurk.
For all the communication we ingest, we really don’t have to do anything with the information. The web, for all its activity, is still a passive communication tool. BraveHumans is a marketplace of ideas, yet nothing we discuss really leads to activity. I say, “Hmm, I think I understand”, or, “I disagree”, or, “I don’t get it.” I don’t think that’s a fault of BraveHumans; when asked, the contributors primarily indicated that this was what they wanted. We got what we wished for; the question is, is it what we want?
Extra credit points for those of you who can name and locate the text that I referenced.
May 16th, 2007 01:09
Of course, Acts 17 ends with
Not much perhaps, but it was a start.
The chronicle of Paul’s journeys is a pretty strong commentary on the power of ideas. Here’s a guy wandering from town to town, preaching the Gospel. Spreading an idea. The idea ticks a lot of people off, intrigues others, but keeps converting a few here and a few there. In the end, it changed the world.
May 16th, 2007 09:29
I think there is power in just exchanging ideas…when we started Brave Humans, we did so with the hope that we could get folks from a wide variety of ideologies to come together for discussion…that in and of itself is unusual.
If we can learn more about each other (especially from those with whom we assume we disagree), we might find fewer areas of disagreement. Then maybe action will follow…but people only take action when they see some sort of reason for it…
That was our hope. For me, anyway, we haven’t gotten there yet. We don’t have the variety of participants for which we aimed (yet?). I’ve heard from others far more experienced in the blogosphere that that’s not unusual…that “like follows like.” We’re trying to change that, and of course that’s not easy. Maybe not possible.
I’ve also heard from those more involved with the workings of this site that we have a lot of lurkers…here’s hoping that there are some others out there who are not posting yet but will become motivated to put in their 2 cents…that could help our towards our aim for a variety of voices.
I’d see this as a good start and possibly a precursor to action. That’s my 2 cents.
Susan
May 16th, 2007 14:41
I think something needs to be said about the quality of discussion. Discussing or thinking about ideas with an open mind and inquisitiveness may lead to a revision of one’s own ideas, and hence one’s own actions. These actions can be small, and they might never even be formally known or proclaimed to the world at large. But change is change, and even the smallest changes over time can make a difference.
That said, those changes, however big or small, will arise only if the quality of discussion and sharing of ideas is open and non-judgmental, which is what I believe Brave Humans is going for. Digging deeper into your own trench wont’ change much. Actions may be taken, but they won’t be any different from what you’ve always done. Nothing changes, inside or out. That’s called stagnation.
At the very least, I believe Brave Humans is one of many antidotes to stagnation, if people are willing to open their minds and think (and therefore possibly act) in new and challenging ways.
I agree with Susan that for this to really work, we need a wider variety of voices to add to our discussions. Still, what I’ve been reading and writing so far has already shaped some of my more amorphous ideas about the world, and has also made me question concepts I had thought to be pretty set.
May 16th, 2007 17:53
I find that my views and perspectives change when I encounter new information, not when I hear other opinions.
Discussion forums are a good way of bringing information forward.
Of course, there are a lot of websites and blogs that aim at engaging people in action. Activitist websites provide background information, point to actions readers can take and give handy tools to make it easy for people to act (e.g. click to donate). They use the tools of marketing to encourage readers to translate belief into action.
Here at Brave Humans, the topics that are raised are more theoretical, and not closely related to action. Most discussion also seems somewhat preliminary. I wonder whether we could go further and bring some resolution to discussions here if we tried to round out by finishing some topics with a ’so what’ section, after the main exchange. We could reflect on what we’ve exchanged and note what we will do with the outcomes.
That is a specific suggestion that we could act on. Yes?
May 20th, 2007 19:32
Good reflection. I think blogging can be a lot like babbling, but when the words are infused with the power of the Holy Spirit, some people change for the better. I appreciate your effort to follow in Paul’s footsteps.
May 20th, 2007 22:12
I guess I’ve just become my own best example. Life has directed me away from blogging this week, and probably will for the coming week as well.
Brian, correct passages and outcome.
Susan, in manty sites, lurkers outnumber commenters. Maybe lurkers are the “silent majority”? Hmm.
Elena, many times we have to dig deeper into our own trench in order to exhaust our own arguments. If we’re not at a fine enough level of discernment for what we say we believe, then all we have are emotional arguments. I have no problem with people becoming entrenched, as long as they are honest about when they are wrong or admit that they do not see or understand another person’s point of view.
Gillian, I would also like to get beyond preliminary discussion on a number of posts, and into something more concrete. I like the idea of a “so what” section; I’ve been thinking along the lines of a “what next” section, too.
All, my point with the post was that a certain content and delivery method will logically lead itself to a certain type of response. Digg’s readers became righteously indignant; that’s not the intent here. As long as everyone is happy with subtle change and the occasional “convert”, then the site is accomplishing what the principals want it to accomplish.
Toodles,
Rick