discourse

[cellio]

When considering law and policy, the dominant factor should be what is just. When interacting with people, compassion should also be an important factor. The relative priorities of justice and compassion go a long way toward defining a political or philosophical position.

All that said, when discussing law and policy with people, things get complicated. I sometimes fail to give appropriate weight to compassion when expressing myself, even while holding a justice-dominant opinion. This is something I would like to improve in myself.

Comments

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Assume this is based on the recent posting about the housing crisis.

Had actually written a long comment that got deleted, have hoped to do a post, but no time.

I do not think you lack compassion. But I do think you lack information. No shocker. The American people as a whole are abysmally informed about what is going on in the world and in the economy. A student of mine who travels frequently to Europe and Asia remarked to me only last night that it was not until he took my class (on media concentration) that he understood why we in the U.S. are not discussing the critical issues of our economy and appear undisturbed by how abysmal our economy has become relative to other developed countries.

I'm a total policy junkie and news hound, and I know only a fraction of what I need to know. I try to remind myself of that when I get on a roll and make very authoritative pronunciations. Doesn't always help, mind. I can be as certain and pig headed about stuff as anyone.

To paraphrase Lois McMaster Bujold, I think you are one of the people who has conquered the will to be stupid that drives so many other people. That's a vital accomplishment.

[cellio]

I see a long comment there timestamped a bit after this one. Was that the one you're referring to?

But I do think you lack information. No shocker.

Indeed. I try to learn what I can about the myriad of important things going on in the world; I have no illusions that I have full information about anything. I try to find reasonable sources in enough variety to smoke out the bogosities.

"Conquered the will to be stupid": I like that. Yeah, that's what I strive for. I can't be infinitely informed, but I can at least try to think, and seek.