Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hard to disagree

Intelligent discussion all but extinct

Barry Jones complains about the dumbing down of political debate, and it is hard to disagree.

In terms of the reasons why, I find it hard not to blame the internet for the ease with which ideologically motivated attacks on climate science have spread in the echo chamber that most people are happy to reside in.

And if you thought blogs were bad in this regard, I think that the Twitter is making it even worse. I'm sure blogging has taken a downturn in popularity as people have turned to the instant gratification of live, short jokey comments that seem to me to be the sole reason for the existence of that medium. When I have looked at Twitter feeds, I can't really understand the appeal of watching (or participating in) a knotted spaghetti of snippets of conversations from all over the place. Sure, the occasional witticism is there to be seen; but it drowns in a sea mundane connectedness.

There was probably a better informed level of debate when paper pamphlets were the only way to go about it.

The real puzzle is: how to get better detail in debate going again. TV panel shows such as Q&A are certainly not the way to go about it - I have always disliked that format too for its dumbing down of complex issues into one liners.

I am not sure what the answer is. Less electricity with which to use the internet might help though! (Just kidding.)

1 comment:

TimT said...

I love one-liners; what I dislike about twitter is that it's solely limited to just one-liners. No room for two-liners, three-liners etc.

There was a time when you could expect to have a good chat and a worthwhile argument on blogs via the comments section - nowadays this is less so. The ideological lines have been drawn and each blog has a fixed audience - and most people have realised the futility of arguing in most circumstances: so very few minds are changed.

The Mild Colonial Boy used to have a lovely quote up on his blog by Lichtenberg, talking about how he ceased to believe you could convince anybody by arguing, and saying how now he only published to 'harass and irritate those who persecute us' and 'give strength' to those on his side. It's gone now, alas.

Blogging is the best contemporary medium for arguments because there's plenty of space for a diversity of opinions. Most people lack the energy and time to devote to that sort of thing though. Still, I think the medium has a lot to offer (and a lot more to offer than facebook and twitter and other even more trivial social-networking products).