The Narrative
It was really sad to hear the other day that School Teachers are feeling threatened or too scared to discuss the climate change issues in class in Australia. Most probably the backlash is coming from the parents and the mob mentality and the one -percenter’s; basically the status quo. My suggestion is that you should rip up all the rule books and have fun debate or conduct a Geoffrey Robertson style Hypothetical type of argument. Personally I love getting things wrong. And most times I don’t get too upset if someone states that “you are wrong Charlie Brown; it’s not that way at all.” And if that makes sense to me, I have just learnt something. Though it’s always the motivation or the narrative of the opposing person on how they debate. Recently I watched a debate with Piers Morgan and Musician from Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters. It was interesting to see how Piers Morgan would frame his questions in Got- Ya kind of way as to win any point or like winning a card game of “Snap”. Piers was showbiz. Piers ain’t no fool; but it was interesting to watch the dynamics. They were on 2 different planes. Piers likes controlling the Narrative. The other guy is how longs is a piece of string and 4 times ahead in a “we cant even agree on point one so why are we going there type of defence? ”. With some people you should start a debate by both agreeing that its 2pm and its Wednesday it’s raining and you both don’t like Green Eggs and Ham. So you both agree to agree on something. Sometimes its better to stay at a foundation level before you move to the next step. And who can forget the Palestinian vrs The Israeli-an debate on his show about 6 months ago. They just screamed at each other. At least Piers is trying something. Just thinking out loud: say you concreted your whole front and backyard. If you had a house that is? How would that effect your environment ? Stay there for awhile and you’ll get a hundred different fun answers. Some people just want win the days argument and feel good about themselves and others know we aren't there yet. A bit like being an Agnostic. We Just don’t know enough yet. Though we will keep our ears peeled.