mundamanu
Silver Member
TBN is a place for politics [It\'s a little long]
As an aspiring political theorist (I am beginning a PhD program in the fall) with a strong interest in democratic theory and political participation, I followed the "Bringing Back the Draft/Iraq" thread with a great deal of interest.
I would like to suggest that rather than being a place that should be free from political discussion, TBN is a perfect place for political discussion, as long as political discussions are constrained to political topic threads (this only to avoid constant hijacking and to better maintain the incredible civility of TBN discussions).
There are many reasons that I believe this to be the case. Principle among them are 1) Democracy is more about the free exchange of ideas and the ability to effect and affect their implementation than it is about going to the voting booth every couple of years. The voting booth is the procedural embodiment of representative democracy. Just as important, however, is how we arrive at our voting decisions. Many studies show that our discussions with family, friends and neighbors, etc. are as important, if not more important, than the information we receive from the news and other media in making these decisions (of course, many studies show just the opposite). TBN (the internet generally) enlarges hugely the sphere of inter-personal information exchange, and so therefore can be hugely beneficial to our democratic process. 2) Democratic citizens, almost by definition, are first and foremost political citizens. Whether we acknowledge it or not, most of the day to day decisions that we make, from what kind of car to drive (gas guzzler vs enviro) to where to shop (Wal-Mart vs local) to where to take a vacation (France vs UK), to where to live (rural vs urban), to how much water to use to what kind of tractor to buy (gear vs hydro /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif just kidding -- American vs import) are political decisions (examples are for illustration only; there are bazillions of other relevant and/or better examples). Therefore, the 10,000+ membership of TBN is always already a political community. To avoid or supress this is to do a disservice to democracy. 3) Political discussions have shown themselves to be wildly popular on TBN. The Draft/Iraq thread was open for exactly six days (almost to the minute) and it was closed at 182 posts, for an average of 30 posts/day. 4) TBN has a well-established culture of civility that promotes the free exchange of ideas. Political discussions are contentious; there is no way to avoid that. Afterall, we are expressing our opinions on how we believe our society should be organized and how power should be distributed and expressed within it. Obviously people will feel strongly about those opinions. However, because of the call for civility, people have shown themselves to be willing to write calmly and thoughtfully (for the most part) about colossally important topics, when given the space to do so.
So, given these four points, I would like to suggest that the ban on political discussions be dropped and a "Political Topics" forum be established. If it is moderated by the same principles that moderate the other forums, I do not see how it could be anything but beneficial. Anytime a non-political thread is hijacked by politics, the political part of the thread would be moved to "Political Topics" and left to develop.
Democracy is the greatest thing a population can have. To be true to the democratic spirit, democratic citizens should make use of every opporunity that is presented to them to "do" the gift of democracy that was so hard-won. Doing democracy means talking, discussing, arguing. TBN is as good a place as any, and better than most.
As an aspiring political theorist (I am beginning a PhD program in the fall) with a strong interest in democratic theory and political participation, I followed the "Bringing Back the Draft/Iraq" thread with a great deal of interest.
I would like to suggest that rather than being a place that should be free from political discussion, TBN is a perfect place for political discussion, as long as political discussions are constrained to political topic threads (this only to avoid constant hijacking and to better maintain the incredible civility of TBN discussions).
There are many reasons that I believe this to be the case. Principle among them are 1) Democracy is more about the free exchange of ideas and the ability to effect and affect their implementation than it is about going to the voting booth every couple of years. The voting booth is the procedural embodiment of representative democracy. Just as important, however, is how we arrive at our voting decisions. Many studies show that our discussions with family, friends and neighbors, etc. are as important, if not more important, than the information we receive from the news and other media in making these decisions (of course, many studies show just the opposite). TBN (the internet generally) enlarges hugely the sphere of inter-personal information exchange, and so therefore can be hugely beneficial to our democratic process. 2) Democratic citizens, almost by definition, are first and foremost political citizens. Whether we acknowledge it or not, most of the day to day decisions that we make, from what kind of car to drive (gas guzzler vs enviro) to where to shop (Wal-Mart vs local) to where to take a vacation (France vs UK), to where to live (rural vs urban), to how much water to use to what kind of tractor to buy (gear vs hydro /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif just kidding -- American vs import) are political decisions (examples are for illustration only; there are bazillions of other relevant and/or better examples). Therefore, the 10,000+ membership of TBN is always already a political community. To avoid or supress this is to do a disservice to democracy. 3) Political discussions have shown themselves to be wildly popular on TBN. The Draft/Iraq thread was open for exactly six days (almost to the minute) and it was closed at 182 posts, for an average of 30 posts/day. 4) TBN has a well-established culture of civility that promotes the free exchange of ideas. Political discussions are contentious; there is no way to avoid that. Afterall, we are expressing our opinions on how we believe our society should be organized and how power should be distributed and expressed within it. Obviously people will feel strongly about those opinions. However, because of the call for civility, people have shown themselves to be willing to write calmly and thoughtfully (for the most part) about colossally important topics, when given the space to do so.
So, given these four points, I would like to suggest that the ban on political discussions be dropped and a "Political Topics" forum be established. If it is moderated by the same principles that moderate the other forums, I do not see how it could be anything but beneficial. Anytime a non-political thread is hijacked by politics, the political part of the thread would be moved to "Political Topics" and left to develop.
Democracy is the greatest thing a population can have. To be true to the democratic spirit, democratic citizens should make use of every opporunity that is presented to them to "do" the gift of democracy that was so hard-won. Doing democracy means talking, discussing, arguing. TBN is as good a place as any, and better than most.
