Stop. Hey, What's That Sound

 

I have been regularly listening to a podcast called Making Sense by Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and famous published atheist and podcaster.  He may be animated by contrarianism, but to a fault, he wants to take a look at all sides of things it seems to me, to take a look at this thing  as meditation teacher Rodney Smith likes to say.  After the protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing by the police officer, and the aftermaths of the protests, and the other things going on in the cities in the name of Black Lives Matter, Sam Harris posted an episode of the podcast wherein he reflected on what he thought was going on and how the overall orientation of what we consider to be the BLM movement  might lead to more suffering, particularly that such an orientation could contribute significantly to the possibility of a second Trump term.  A few months later, Harris had Columbia university professor John McWhorter on his podcast discussing racism, identity politics, double standards for the black community, the war on drugs, police violence and the “enduring riddle” of affirmative action, among other topics. McWhorter has a book coming out that Harris says we should all read regarding these concerns and how we might avoid disasters like a second Trump term. 

I am quite challenged by McWhorter and Harris.  I feel a kinship and “membership” level of connection with “the left”, but unlike some, I am never quite sure what “we” want for sure when it comes to specific policies. I am often called out as a devil’s advocate when to me, it just seems like I am trying to find the truth or maybe just a place where I can live with others (including Republicans) and not feel that eventually we’ll have to kill or be killed.  A perhaps somewhat off topic but I think relevant example is my reaction to the political polarization around the forest fires in the West this summer and fall, which caused so much loss of property, some loss of life, and a situation of prolonged smoke in the air that those of us in it felt that we had to choose where we couldn’t breathe.  Do you want 2.5 micron particles in your lungs at extremely hazardous levels, or do you want Covid-19 spikes in your nose? In or out?  It really felt apocalyptic there for a while, especially when the daytime sky turned orange.  The news media (I’m tuned into NPR and read the New York Times) talked about Climate Change Fires while Trump and others talked about the Forestry Management Fires.  One or the other, chose your side.  To me this seemed ridiculous, on both sides. Sure, when climate change fails to get mentioned, it reminds some of us that there are those who feel this isn’t something worth thinking about, or that it’s not as important for future generations as it is.  Nevertheless, to say that other factors such as forestry management and the Wilderness-Urban-Interface are not to be mentioned or discussed, and that to mention them is tantamount to weakening support for action on climate change, is unhelpful.   

Why not acknowledge both, and discuss?  It’s quite obvious that both are important.  I’m just going to resonate here with some Sam Harris type arrogance and express my firm belief that I am right on this point.  That is, that there are multiple sides to most dilemmas, and that claiming some don’t or shouldn’t exist because you prefer (for perhaps very good reasons) to focus on one or more to the exclusion of any consideration of the others, or at least appear to be claiming such a position, is counterproductive.  And likely to be dangerous, in that for example, such behavior might further polarize and contribute to political outcomes that could be as bad as a second Trump term. 

I decided to follow up on the podcast, so I looked up McWhorter (and another black college professor, Glenn Loury) and read a couple essays published by a group called “1776 Unites”:

https://1776unites.com/essays/the-1619-project-depicts-an-america-tainted-by-original-sin/

and

https://1776unites.com/essays/we-cannot-allow-1619-to-dumb-down-america-in-the-name-of-a-crusade/

I am a slow reader, and my temperament is a bit on the self-critical side, which might cause some mental lethargy here and there. I want to understand what’s going on, but it seems that in order to understand all this, and to dissect out all the arguments and orientations, will take more intellectual power than I have.  Do I read McWhorter’s and Loury’s books, or X Kendi’s and Wilkerson’s books?  Do I have to read them all, and then read even more (you all know the list).  What do I do? 

Until recently I guess I was content to just be a left of center liberal democrat and just do what I felt up to doing.  You know, don’t beat yourself up, contribute to changing the world by not refusing to do the one thing you can do.  Just be a human being, be decent, don’t hurt people.  But now it feels as if signing on to everything that my friends on the left come up with, what pretty much I come up with, might be misguided.  This polarization thing is getting pretty extreme.  So if all these black intellectuals are refuting the 1619 project and challenging the underlying assumptions of the BLM leaders, why should I feel that their perspectives are flawed?  Maybe they are all right-wing extremists who  have been duped and brainwashed by our capitalist leaders and our capitalist system, but maybe they have a useful perspective.  Are they de facto dupes because they challenge the 1619 project, and therefore there’s no need to try to understand what they are saying?  Or does the fact that I ask these questions require me to look deeper to try and understand?  I have to believe that it’s possible to discern what’s valuable without having to read everything or consider everyone’s perspective, because if that were true, we’d all be paralyzed, unable to act out of a perception that we don’t have the whole truth. 

Thanks for reading.  I will keep reading, and thinking, and discussing when there's an opportunity.  

And now, for a picture I love which I took while biking in Grand Teton National Park this past summer.  

Another 5 miles north to Jenny Lake, summer 2020