Having been summoned from my pit to appear in the defence of left of centre politics I have been participating in an interesting discussion chez Vandeervecken. I have come across Orion before and he has largely resisted the urge to seriously debate, however on this occasion he has hung around long enough to make it interesting.

The fact that there are conservatives out there is no surprise to me but I am regularly amazed that there politics often appear to come from a shared viewpoint of spoon-fed information. Orion is at least a rareity in so far as he is prepared to debate when so many others will not but I have found the information that he offers to be rather formulaic. My concern is that perhaps it is just my reading of the events. I seem to find it very easy in my mind to refute much of the argument given by right-wingers, at least my argument seems sound in my mind but does it stand up to scrutiny? There are obviously facts that can be quoted to back up the arguments on both sides and even more so the perception of these facts but ultimately one has to choose which version of events one feels is the more objective. If some of the sources clearly have a reason for portraying events from a particular point of view then of course that must be borne in mind whilst reading.

I am therefore asking for any readers who fancy a good discussion of political theory to read through Vandeervecken’s blog entry and come back and lets have a dissection of what arguments work and what do not and why. This is not a back-slapping exercise of how clever or not we can be, it is important that arguments are analysed as to their strength or weakness. i do feel that we on the far-left spend much time amongst each other preaching to the converted because we are passionate enough in our beliefs that anyone to our right will not hang around long enough to engage in debate. It is vital that we have our beliefs questioned and that we in turn continue to read other points of view and interpretations of events so as to determine how strong our ideals and convictions are. Otherwise we are no better than the religious who adhere to an arcane set of beliefs in fear of the nihilism of the alternative.

Let me know what you think, by all means take part in the debate, then pull up a chair and a drink if you fancy, I’ve not got to go to work until mid-August so we can discuss until the wee hours!

Song Of The Day ~ Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here

Original Comments:


Danny the Infidel made this comment,
I have always been in doubt of the real values of public debates, apart from showing that your still alive off course. Most of the people that are so intrested that they actually even consider to listen in, are often already “saved to the couse”, what ever it may be, and the ones that can be swayed by the outcome of a debate really no so little about the issue that I quiestion if they should have any say at all. Maybe a bit elitist to say so, but I’m tired of people voting for someone bcouse they have a smoth mouth and a nice tie.
But good luck anyway.

Song Of The Day~Beasty Boys~Sabotage

-Redbaron responds – Hi, Danne, good to hear from you again. I agree with you in the respect of the preaching to the converted which was precisely why I wanted to initiate a more analytical debate. This has quite clearly backfired on me since no-one appears interested in the debate so sadly, I shall bear the humiliation with good grace and continue with my essays.-

comment added :: 18th August 2006, 20:12 GMT+01 :: http://upnorth.blog-city.com/
haywood made this comment,
I must disagree with Danny on this one, not only for the reason that I was engaging our dear friend Orion before I was forced to allow Baron to tag me out, but for the reason that discourse between radically opposed viewpoints is sorely missed in all other forms of mass-media.
It’s fruitless and tedious I know, but I aint really got anything better to do .

Song of the day The Gunner’s Dream by Pink Floyd

-Redbaron responds – I wasn’t tagging you out fella, I wanted a 2 prong attack! I do also think that discourse between opponents is something of a lost art which is a shame because I enjoy it. Oh and I like both of you listing your own songs of the day in comments, I hope everyone does that, it’s a good insight into what is going on in a person’s mind as well as checking their musical tastes!

comment added :: 20th August 2006, 18:44 GMT+01 :: http://cjh9999.blog-city.com