When I finally figured out what I wanted for my first tattoo, I went to the tattoo artist and tried to explain what I wanted. A mountain lion, in profile. It seemed so simple, right? I could visualize it clearly in my head. Except that I stumbled when I tried to explain it to the artist. He told me to bring in an example of what I wanted...a picture or something. (So I went prowling through the library, looking for a picture of a mountain lion. And discovered that what I thought was classic and commonplace really wasn't. It was hard to find a picture of what I wanted.)
Typing things out in a blog is sometimes similar. I can see something quite clearly in my head. It seems so bright, and shiny. Then when I try to put that vision into words I stumble. I want to get further into foreign policy suggestions, but I realized that the concepts don't flow together well yet. Once again, I need to cover a few more things first.
Kwame Appiah has a book called Cosmopolitanism that I recommend to anyone interested in this topic. He made the point that we don't have to agree on everything in order to get along. That is, we can have very different values. Diverse opinions on what's best for our country. And yet we can still live together peaceably enough.
It reminds me a bit of my extended family, particularly during Thanksgiving. I have relatives across the entire spectrum, politically speaking...and for the most part we can all sit down together and enjoy our Thanksgiving meal. This does, however, presuppose that we all value our relationships more than our politics.
This year, this crazy election year, I have seen various friends on Facebook talk about unfriending or blocking people they disagree with. They sometimes make very eloquent arguments for why they do so, and I'm not going to say they're wrong. I will say, however, that it's not the choice I make.
I keep my Facebook feed pretty much wide open, for a couple of reasons. One is that I don't want to deliberately create a bubble. When you start curating your feed, filtering out the people who disagree with you, then you only hear part of the debate.
In looking back, some of my most rewarding and interesting conversations have been with the friends and family across the political aisle. (It helps that most of them are intelligent people with thoughtful positions. I can't say it's often changed my mind, but it has added depth to my understanding of the issues.) This is also, btw, why I don't like calling various people ReThuglicans or DemoRats or whatever the cutesy insult of the day is.
The choice I make can be good or bad, depending. On the negative side - I don't take as strong a stand as the issues call for. I am friends with people who don't always share my views, and who express views that some of my other friends would strongly disagree with.
On the other hand, I can sometimes have an impact that others don't. Because I'm friends with people I disagree with. (It helps that I don't fit neatly into political stereotypes. It's harder to dismiss me as a bleeding heart liberal when I've served my country, in Iraq and Afghanistan.)
The point of what so far has been a more personal digression is this. Some of the same issues (and strengths, and weaknesses) come into play when we decide how we are going to interact with another country.
Take China, for example. We have very different values, particularly with regards to human rights. Detaining booksellers from Hong Kong, simply because they sell books that criticize China? Awful! The Chinese government must be pretty weak, to find criticism so threatening.
Is this something we should ostracize them for, like banning our Facebook friends? Is this something we can disagree on, and still sit down for Thanksgiving together?
Are we better off engaging, maintaining relationships while making our disapproval known?
Or are we better off cutting ties, so that we aren't supporting it or a part of it?
Typing things out in a blog is sometimes similar. I can see something quite clearly in my head. It seems so bright, and shiny. Then when I try to put that vision into words I stumble. I want to get further into foreign policy suggestions, but I realized that the concepts don't flow together well yet. Once again, I need to cover a few more things first.
Kwame Appiah has a book called Cosmopolitanism that I recommend to anyone interested in this topic. He made the point that we don't have to agree on everything in order to get along. That is, we can have very different values. Diverse opinions on what's best for our country. And yet we can still live together peaceably enough.
It reminds me a bit of my extended family, particularly during Thanksgiving. I have relatives across the entire spectrum, politically speaking...and for the most part we can all sit down together and enjoy our Thanksgiving meal. This does, however, presuppose that we all value our relationships more than our politics.
This year, this crazy election year, I have seen various friends on Facebook talk about unfriending or blocking people they disagree with. They sometimes make very eloquent arguments for why they do so, and I'm not going to say they're wrong. I will say, however, that it's not the choice I make.
I keep my Facebook feed pretty much wide open, for a couple of reasons. One is that I don't want to deliberately create a bubble. When you start curating your feed, filtering out the people who disagree with you, then you only hear part of the debate.
In looking back, some of my most rewarding and interesting conversations have been with the friends and family across the political aisle. (It helps that most of them are intelligent people with thoughtful positions. I can't say it's often changed my mind, but it has added depth to my understanding of the issues.) This is also, btw, why I don't like calling various people ReThuglicans or DemoRats or whatever the cutesy insult of the day is.
The choice I make can be good or bad, depending. On the negative side - I don't take as strong a stand as the issues call for. I am friends with people who don't always share my views, and who express views that some of my other friends would strongly disagree with.
On the other hand, I can sometimes have an impact that others don't. Because I'm friends with people I disagree with. (It helps that I don't fit neatly into political stereotypes. It's harder to dismiss me as a bleeding heart liberal when I've served my country, in Iraq and Afghanistan.)
The point of what so far has been a more personal digression is this. Some of the same issues (and strengths, and weaknesses) come into play when we decide how we are going to interact with another country.
Take China, for example. We have very different values, particularly with regards to human rights. Detaining booksellers from Hong Kong, simply because they sell books that criticize China? Awful! The Chinese government must be pretty weak, to find criticism so threatening.
Is this something we should ostracize them for, like banning our Facebook friends? Is this something we can disagree on, and still sit down for Thanksgiving together?
Are we better off engaging, maintaining relationships while making our disapproval known?
Or are we better off cutting ties, so that we aren't supporting it or a part of it?
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