Saturday, November 11, 2017

America's Escalating Outrage

Last Thursday evening I attended another of the Arizona State University's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership lectures.  This one with guest speaker Jonathan Haidt.  His subject was America's Escalating Outrage: Why is it happening, what does it do to colleges, and how can we reverse it?"

Wow, what an exceptional talk it was.  He had a lot of insights into what has caused this growing divide between liberals and conservatives and how we can try to address it.  The bad news is, he doesn't see it ending anytime soon.  In fact he said he fears it will get worse before it gets better.  Given that dreary prediction, it was still a most informative talk and I learned a lot from it.  Haidt is a professor at New York University and the author of a recent book titled "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion".  He is also a founding member of Heterodox Academy. Check out their website if you are interested.  There is a lot of amazing information and fascinating points of view featured there.

11 comments:

Lowell said...

I'm sure I would have enjoyed this immensely although I'd probably ended up even more depressed than I am now. Every indication is we are moving toward a dark and dismal totalitarian future. The parallels with Germany in the 30s are terrifying!

Judy Ryer said...

I will check out that website!

RedPat said...

The whole world is nervous.

Bill said...

Sounds like a very interesting lecture, it gives people a lot to think about.

Coloring Outside the Lines said...

We are in dark days, that is for sure. It's bad enough when we have to worry about other countries, but when it's our own fellow Americans, it scares me.

Silver in AZ said...

we are witnessing it getting worse nearly every single day. I try to maintain hope for the future, but deep down, I'm not so sure.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

It's often the way Sharon, things getting worse before they get better.. the main thing is that hopefully they DO get better 😀

Steve Reed said...

That sounds like a fascinating talk! I would love to know more about what he said. I told Dave the other day that I thought a lot of people spend way too much time being offended, and he said, "Yeah, Bill Maher said the same thing!"

William Kendall said...

I think he might well be right about things getting worse before it gets better.

Thérèse said...

So interesting and there is so much to learn from people who think differently so we can act all together regardless of difficulties and different opinions. Jonathan Haidt seems to be so positive and seems to be on a mission. We need people like him.

Jack said...

I think he is right. Not good that the more reasonable Republicans in Congress are leaving. They will be replaced by more doctrinaire R's.