Why Is Political Discourse and Debate Broken in Our Society?

Life in our society moves fast, perhaps too fast for our own good.

News headlines come and go at the pace of a bullet, tweets rattle off on our feeds before we can take a second breath, and our mate down the pub has a new conspiracy theory to tell every week.

Our minds are constantly being overloaded with information. Important information, on important and sometimes difficult topics.

Yet how often have you observed someone form an opinion on a single headline, a single tweet, one overheard conversation at the pub, without doing any research on the issue in question.

Dying on a Hill

Strangely, it has become rather commonplace to jump at the bone, before checking if there is even any meat to it.

It does not matter if these people realise, only after researching later, that they are mistaken. They will continue to bang their point home.

Unfortunately, I see all too often people dying on a hill they did not even intend to climb.

They had not even considered the situation before the issue was raised yet manage to come to an opinion within the next few minutes, sometimes seconds.

Why is this an issue?

It has caused political discourse to become messy, awfully dirty and uncivilized.

It has resulted in opinions founded on anything but research and facts.

Ultimately, it is a disease spreading within our society.

We need to stop it.

Education, education, education

I must point out that being wrong is not the problem.

I am as sure that I am wrong on certain matters, as the manner in which I speak on them. The difference is that I choose to speak on issues which I have researched prior.

This way, when someone wishes to challenge my ideas, I can have a functioning conversation with the other individual. Perhaps I will learn something and be proven wrong, perhaps they will.

But what is certain is that if I were to speak on a topic in which I know nothing about, and speak it as gospel, then the conversation will reach a dead end.

Nobody will learn anything, and the most probable outcome is that we will become more opposed.

It is vital that we educate ourselves first, before having important discourse and debates on political issues.

So, a suggestion.

Simple, but difficult.

Our society needs to slow down.

All of us.

You, me, and our mate down the pub.