According to the great political philosopher Michael Oakeshott, our civilisation can be best defined as a ‘conversation, begun in the primeval forests and extended and made more articulate in the course of centuries. It is a conversation which goes on both in public and within each of ourselves." A conversation implies a discourse in which no one voice dominates, no one is shouted down, and contrasting perspectives are heard and respected, even when agreement is unlikely and compromise unexplored. Actually, I had just such a civilised discussion with a climate change campaigner earlier this week. Yet few on the front line of the Extinction Rebellion have any interest in a conversation which respects adversaries because they have no time for dissent. Last weekend their anarchic tendency blockaded printing presses, preventing the circulation of newspapers to millions of readers. The justification for the blockade? Simply that the newspapers concerned refused to kowtow and parrot their extremist views.
Source: Daily Express :: Comment Feed https://ift.tt/3isLX2U
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