Debate. It is an element of friendship, negotiation, government, management, investment; you name it, it's there. How we debate seems to determine credibility. Many of us discuss what we call "facts" and "evidence" and others argue the emotional point of idealism.
I'm no lawyer, but I did work a short-term job for some and one point they all made very clear to me (over coffee) is this: in any case, any topic for debate, any trial, it is important to remember that the facts and the evidence just don't matter. What really matters is how the judge and jury feel about them and this is either a good or bad thing, depending upon how you can manipulate their feelings and spin the deed.
What does that mean? Does that mean we can toss facts and evidence out the window and engage in emotional diatribe to determine the fate of those in question of right and wrong or life and death? Shall we, instead, input evidentiary data into a computer and allow simple logic functions to determine the outcome for each criminal, each civil suit, each traffic ticket? How do we decide the fate of our nation - write some code and put an array of Crays to work on the abortion issue?
I think we can lose the forest for the trees when we examine facts too much. There comes a time when we must step back and remember our ideals, our foundings, general morality and common sense, else we fail in the grand experiment of democracy, spirituality and just plain life. It is when we lost track of the fact taht we are human beings living together that we shoot ourselves in the feet, betray our allegience and misplace our patriotism.
What say you?
I'm no lawyer, but I did work a short-term job for some and one point they all made very clear to me (over coffee) is this: in any case, any topic for debate, any trial, it is important to remember that the facts and the evidence just don't matter. What really matters is how the judge and jury feel about them and this is either a good or bad thing, depending upon how you can manipulate their feelings and spin the deed.
What does that mean? Does that mean we can toss facts and evidence out the window and engage in emotional diatribe to determine the fate of those in question of right and wrong or life and death? Shall we, instead, input evidentiary data into a computer and allow simple logic functions to determine the outcome for each criminal, each civil suit, each traffic ticket? How do we decide the fate of our nation - write some code and put an array of Crays to work on the abortion issue?
I think we can lose the forest for the trees when we examine facts too much. There comes a time when we must step back and remember our ideals, our foundings, general morality and common sense, else we fail in the grand experiment of democracy, spirituality and just plain life. It is when we lost track of the fact taht we are human beings living together that we shoot ourselves in the feet, betray our allegience and misplace our patriotism.
What say you?