Sunday, December 21, 2008

Disagree without being disagreeable

It's a noble cause to attempt to "disagree without being disagreeable" it's one that I've tried to do for years and at times have not always met with success, I've discovered something in my years of having that as a goal. The person you are disagreeing with has to share it as a belief too and despite what we may want to accept, our nation has quite a few people who will always be "disagreeable" no matter what.

They have to be, because once they stop being disagreeable they'd have to actually rethink their positions, they'd have to stop and rethink how they treated others. It's much easier for them to be disagreeable, living an existence that typically includes the hypocrisy of expecting them to be treated one way, yet treating others in the exact same manner that they claim is wrong to do.

It'd be easy to pretend that only one party or one group in our nation does this, but that's far from the truth. A prime example of that has been evidenced with the reaction over the selection of Rick Warren, part of which is pointed out in this article that inspired my soap box moment about those who are disagreeable, Put differences aside, let us pray together. For us to really put our differences aside, both sides would have to actually do that. It rarely happens, what does happen is one side demands the other put their differences aside but are not willing to do the same.

We spend more time focusing on what divides us and as long as we continue to do that and we continue to forget what should be our common goals? Things will continue to be pretty disagreeable...

2 comments:

Nunzia Rider said...

I've been on this point for days now. I was actually willing to let this one go until the president-elect made the "disagree without being disagreeable" comment, and then, of course, Pastor Warren repeated it, according to Juan Cole, who apparently fell under his spell.

I just can't quite figure out what's agreeable about likening my life to incest, polygamy and child sexual abuse. Maybe I'm just missing something.

Unknown said...

You aren't being disagreeable, I don't think Warren was a good choice and while the attempt is to focus on what he agrees with that we do, incest, polygamy and child sex abuse should be disagreeable to everyone.

If we can't agree on that, then we have a hard time getting to the agreeable portion.

I haven't read Cole, now I'm not sure I want to. I've accustomed myself to being disappointed in what Obama is doing and have people get upset then watch them justify it.

Maybe his way is the way things will get done, but I have a feeling there are going to be many more of these scenarios in the future where people have to decide exactly how far they are willing to go to reach out to the other side and if there is no mutual reaching back? Things are going to remain disagreeable, at times with good reasoning behind it.