My last post (Footprints, Imagination, and the Art of Sustainability) sparked a heated mini-discussion in the comments – which is awesome.
It also got me thinking. What is it about debate and argument that gets our blood boiling so fast?
But more importantly, it made me consider just how protective we are of what we believe. Sometimes I think we defend our beliefs more fiercely than we defend our children. Wars have been fought – at home, abroad, and in the home – over differences of opinion. They still are, come to think of it.
Not that defending your beliefs is a bad thing. It’s actually a very good thing. The world could always use more people who stand up, say what they mean, and stick to it.
But I wonder if we go too far in defense of our beliefs. We get so angry and fired up that good discussions degenerate into name-calling and flaming vitriol. And the problem with a walled-in set of beliefs is that it stagnates. It calcifies and hardens and rots, all at the same time. We forget what it means to learn and – horrors – admit that we were wrong.
So I have a challenge for you today, which I’ll be participating in too. Here it is:
Sometime in the next two weeks, read a book or watch a video that you passionately disagree with. And I mean passionately disagree with. Something that you think is horribly wrong. Something that pisses you off and you would normally throw across the room in disgust.
Just this once, don’t throw it away. Read it (or watch it) all the way through. Pay attention to two things:
- First, pay attention to yourself. What are you feeling? Righteous anger? Fear? Indignation? Disgust? Why do you feel that way – and what do these emotions do to you?
- Second, pay attention to what you’re reading or watching. What, exactly, riles you up so much? What do you disagree with? Why? How would you poke holes in the author’s arguments? What kind of holes do you have on your side? Give the author the benefit of the doubt. Does he or she make a valid point?
The point of this exercise isn’t to make you change your opinions or realize that everything should be accepted just the way it is. If you do happen to change your mind, great. If not, great. But I think it’s healthy to really know what you believe and why you believe it – and to have your beliefs challenged once in a while.
Sound good?
If you want to participate, I’d love to hear about your experiences. What did you read or watch? What did you learn or not learn? Were you angry afterwards? What did you do with your anger?
Feel free to share in the comments below, or, even better, email me at jeffrey [at] artofgreatthings [dot] com.
Try it, and let’s talk.
P.S. – For my part in this challenge, I’m going to be reading Immanuel Kant. I read a little bit of it once, and stopped in disgust. Yeah, I’m a philosophy nerd.
8 Comments on “The Devil’s Advocate Challenge – Or, Get Mad and Learn Something”
says:
This is quite a challenge. It is so much more comfortable to read things that re-enforce our world view. Picking up something that challenges it might be difficult. It may help me to change my mind. Or it may help me to better understand why I belive what I believe
says:
Jeffrey, I've actually done the very thing you are talking about, except I lived it instead of reading about it.
I have to work with a lot of different people in my line of work and the one type of person I swore I would never work with was paedophiles.
I fought for it not to happen however I had to do it as part of my job, when a colleague left who previously worked with them. As a professional I had to look past what they did and treat their drug or alcohol addiction. I managed to get past it and work through it but the worst thing was, I started disliking myself because I started seeing them as normal human beings, which they are to a degree just human beings with sick, twisted minds. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, and my belief about these people still stands and my belief in the punishment for them still stands. I did learn a lot about myself but it's not something I'd like to happen all the time.
says:
Upon reading your intro I had to go and follow up on some of my comments in the last post. (I may have had a little too much fun)
I did this with Karl Marx's communist manifesto. The valid points he brought up were that a small amount of leaders benefiting from the labor of the many who do not reap the benefits is disgusting. On the other hand he still used words to hide rather than convey meaning. He still used the evils that he percieved in capitalism to justify evils in his own system, and unlike capitalism he left no room for free choice on your own action. In a capitalist system you can form a voluntary commune, and you can even sign contracts to give it the force of law. Under communism there is no room for capitalists. I still can not agree with the man, but I at least know why.
says:
Getting comfortable, I think, is very dangerous. I know I'm personally very protective of my worldview, so this is a big challenge for me too.
says:
Wow … that's quite a few steps beyond what I was envisioning, Dave. I can only imagine what it was like for you. And I agree that challenging your own viewpoints isn't something to do all the time. We hold on to our beliefs for a reason.
says:
Mmm … Karl Marx. There's another man I should read for this challenge … politics of any kind always get people riled up.
says:
In all honesty I should probably watch an inconvenient truth again in the spirit of this post.
says:
Great Article Jeffrey,
it is important to realize that there are no universal truths, when it comes to peoples believes and human communication. It all depends on the viewpoint you look from. What if I had another past, other education, other things happen to me. I might have become then a person I would wholeheartedly disagree with today.
I truly believe in my viewpoints, but I know that very often it is just that – a viewpoint and not an ultimate truth.