NEW MEME ALERT

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NEW MEME ALERT

James Joyner | Sunday, July 20, 2003

Ogged has an interesting post, partly inspired by a Kevin Drum post, calling for a change in our approach to political debate: .

. . a lot of political talk presupposes that we should all come to an agreement on a particular view and, consequently, the great bulk of political debate is spent on refutation and argument. But isn’t this model rooted in an error?

Ultimately, on any given issue, a decision has to be made which rejects some points and embraces others. But why is political discourse conducted by people who write as if they are in the position of the decision-makers and as if they are charged with justifying and explaining various exclusions? Save for about twenty of us in this country of 300 million, we are contributing voices, not decision-makers. Could the tone of political debate itself be due to this confusion? Can we change the goal from “tell me why you’re right” to “tell me what you think?”

A subtle distinction, to be sure, but perhaps one less likely to degenerate into ad hominem.

He ends with:

Hey, is this a “meme?” The contributor/decision-maker meme. Me me me me. I like it.

Since we’re mostly tiring of the Bright meme, why not start a new one?

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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