I’m Right and Youre an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley September 26, 2016
Author James Hoggan, Grania Litwin
Distributor: New South Books
ISBN: 9780865718173
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Release Date: August 2016
Website: http://www.newsouthbooks.com.au
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What is it that makes us form an option one way or the other; Is it our environment, the people we mix with on a daily basis, our religion, the country we live in or what we hear with repetitive monotony via the media of today’s world.
It would seem it is a composite of all these things, as well as what we would like to call our own personal choice in matters that are close or dear to us.
But what is it that can make us take a stance as an activist campaigning for or against a global issue such as saving Whales from extinction and in this instance the highly topical, much debated issue of Climate Change.
That Climate Change is a reality is a given, whether we choose to accept this or not; it does make some sort of sense. The subject has been debated, researched, exploited and presented at world conferences, protocols have been put in place worldwide and yet we are still not all that sure that what we are being told is the truth.
Why this has come about makes a serious subject to take into consideration and the findings that are presented on this topic make very, very interesting reading.
James Hoggan, chair of the Suzuki Institute was so concerned about the state of what he calls ‘toxic debate’ on the subject of Climate Change that he, over a period of five years, set out to discover just what it is that has caused public discourse to become so polluted that very few believe what they are being told is relevant, let alone the truth.
His findings, over a series of interviews from noted persons such as, in the first instance, Daniel Yankelovich, a world renown social scientist, Bruno Latour, a French Philosopher and Bryant Welch a Harvard trained lawyer, psychologist, lobbyist and author amongst the many, offer their research and conclusions as to why people fail to pay attention to what is a serious global issue.
This then leads on to what Hoggan calls the ‘polluted public square of discussion’; which relates to the change required on many levels to allow rational public conversation towards changing the way discourse needs to take place to have the required effect. The discussion with Adam Cane, an authority on social change, Peter Senge, world leader in thinking systems and Otto Scharmer and Anne Giardini makes for fascinating reading.
It is then acknowledged that people are naturally apathetic towards change; they feel threatened that the change will destroy all they hold dear; that life will never be the same again. That the reason for change can be so overwhelming it is considered one of the major instigators towards apathy, particularly in regard to Climate Change, which can be substantiated by the many and varied schools of thought in regard to this pressing matter.
The final section is noted as From the Heart and looks at the changes we can make that are not frightening, threatening or unmanageable, but will contribute to making a significantly huge difference to the change of public discourse, which there should be, not debate, on this subject.
Words form the Karen Armstrong, Joan Halifax, both noted scholars, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Monk and The 14th Dalai Lama conclude this thought provoking work, holding out hope that all is not lost and that with a collective consciousness in regard to what we can all do to help clean up our ‘own back yard’, understand the issues and not allow ourselves to be heavily influenced by the media and ‘spin doctor’ negativity, we can all make a difference, to not just Climate Change but world peace and personal acceptance to change.
A work well worth reading, thinking about and discussing.