Tuesday, April 16, 2013

On Extremism


I believe that one of the reasons I'm respected around here is because I desire to be moderate. I don't often play the political accusation games that I see many members caught up in. I don't post from left- or right-affiliated sites if I can help it, and I actively search for the common sense view, rather than the accusatory one.
If what I just said seems arrogant to anyone who is reading this, consider the opinions I hold of the people who often comment on my column, or the other discussions that I moderate. I see what could be a promising seed or discussion about something that is barely political, if political at all, and yet someone enters the conversation and begins accusing the other side of the political aisle's views or actions, no matter what the issue at hand is. Quite often, those accusations have nothing to do with the discussion. All it takes is one person to say "Because of Obama..." or "Because of those lying republicans..."
I also see members taking rather extreme political views that turn into nothing more than catfight after catfight in discussions when two people begin to go at it. Newsvine members are often faced with the same choice as Washington: compromise your views to reach an agreement with each other, or argue on and on, regressing further and further into childish tones and ways, until one or more users violate the Code of Honor and get themselves banned for a period of time.
We all know about the continuing polarization of Newsvine and beyond. For this site in particular, most of the complaints come from users such as myself who have been here for several years and have watched this beautiful community grow more extreme, more polarized in its nature. And yet, I watch the very same members who complain contribute to this wickedness. You yell, you name-call, you argue on and on, and all over what- differences in beliefs? I am the one who should be acting childish, and I am the one who shakes his head and begins hitting the delete button, day after day.
We as a collective body must learn how to ground ourselves again, shift to the center, compromise more, mellow out. We must all remember what the word "moderate" means. I do not want to see people ditch those conservative or liberal views but, can we be honest here for a minute? I am growing tired of watching grown men and women act like children on my column. Extremism in itself accomplishes nothing. We all know this about Washington, how congress only gets things done through compromise. Why are we failing to translate this to our seeds?
We can expand this into the world beyond this website. Extremism, whether political, cultural or religious, has grown routine as the last several years have passed by. The ever-rising antisemitic behavior in Eastern Europe. The global terror threat from the middle east. The continuing existence of the American Nazi party, the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church. Polarization is a real thing, and we now live in a world with far fewer moderates than before. Or really, the same number of moderates, but an increasingly silent body of moderates. We are letting our more vocal cousins on the fringe take control of the views our population collectively shares, allowing them to influence the way we perceive ourselves. 
The central reason for all of humanity's problems is the belief that one human life is more valuable than another. This is a problem we all face. We can connect this immediately to religious divisions, to sex divisions, to age divisions. But we can also connect this to political divisions. When I watch two members argue, it almost seems to me that they are really saying, "Well I am a liberal, my views are correct and therefore I am better than you" (and the opposite). Even though the user's fingers, or the person's mouth, never types the words or speaks the sentence, in a way this is happening. While a moderate may disagree with an opinion, they leave out the arrogance, the denial, and the aggression. They may even compromise, or change their own view from listening to another's. The beauty of moderation is to see different things in different ways.
So if this is the central reason, why aren't Churches teaching this? Why aren't politicians preaching this? Why isn't the world coming to its senses and realizing this? We have, slowly, but extremism yet again stands in the way. I see real-life extremism in the same manner that I watch the two users fight- growing more and more childish and ignoring the larger issue at hand to publicly harass one another. The Church is focused too heavily on social issues these days. The politicians are focused too heavily on poll numbers these days. Both ignore the larger issues at hand- God and Government, respectively- and continue down their self-centered paths of gain.
The Boston Marathon bombs yesterday were extremism at its core. Whoever is responsible for the destruction was so focused on whatever awful, petty goal they had set that they failed to recognize the gift and value of life, and failed to recognize the bigger issue: themselves. His or her extremist views caused this disaster, caused the lives and limbs to be lost, and all for nothing more than what I assume to be glory and fascination with destruction. He or she assumed that the lives were meant to be played with, like toys, and that their loss did not matter. This had the same outcome as the Holocaust, the Crusades, and 9/11: human lives were lost because of a set of beliefs.
I call upon all of you to act like adults and become more moderate around Newsvine. I don't mind if you disagree with one another, but please respect one another. Stop the name-calling, the personal attacks, and the catfights. Remove yourself from the petty politics. And spread the message of moderation and compromise to the world beyond. Extremism is capable of consuming us, but only if we let it. Pause once in a while, consider your actions and thoughts, and let this website become a little more positive in the days ahead.
My thoughts to my hometown of Boston and all who were involved.

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