Today’s #bloganuary post asks “What is a treasure that’s been lost?”
At the risk of getting all sorts of comments that I will simply have to delete, my answer is that we have lost the ability to disagree with one another respectfully.
This isn’t about politics, although it has certainly happened in the political arena. But I am old enough to remember a time when two (or more) people could have a discussion about a topic on which they disagreed–let’s make it something neutral like a book or movie.
Both adults could discuss the matter calmly, advocate for their reasons for liking (or disliking) said movie or book, and at the end of the discussion they walked away friends. No voices were raised, no profanity was uttered and no one was killed.
These days we have lost that. I hope that it is merely buried, waiting to be unearthed after we all get over our pandemic induced trauma.
Civil discourse is a requirement for a functional society. I don’t want to know what’s going to happen if we don’t regain that.
Gardendaze 