The Death of Reason, Tolerance and Courtesy?
AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
There is a disturbing trend developing in public discourse in New Zealand which makes me wonder whether the virtues of reason, tolerance and courtesy that we have long prided ourselves on as a nation are at an end. Every issue today seems to become polarised as a crisis, with the capacity for a balanced and reasonable approach correspondingly diminished. In terms of ensuring an engaged society that is hardly healthy or helpful. For example, I made some comments in error on our blog site about provisions of the Electoral Finance Bill. I am personally annoyed with myself for doing so, but have freely admitted my error. Yet the responses to that admission go way beyond that, and make patently absurd claims that this proves I have no idea what the Bill is all about, or that I am merely acting on briefing notes from the PM, or both, or similar variations. None of which are at all true – I simply screwed up. I am big enough to deal with that and take it on the chin, but what worries me more is that the way in which public discourse is now conducted leads to such debates inevitably becoming personal and bitter, when there is simply no need for that. Indeed, I have always taken the view that where people indulge in personal comments in debates their views should be correspondingly disregarded, because they have not been able to put their arguments in a reasoned, tolerant and courteous manner. Surely, it is time, in the interests of civil society, to restore reason, tolerance and courtesy to public discourse, and deal with things as they are, not what one's prejudices might lead one to imagine them to be. And I make no apology for the fact that UnitedFuture will always seek to be a leader in that regard.