> "Reminding ourselves that each one of them had a face and a name is important."
I fully agree that each human affected has a face and a name.
However, at this moment, I am swamped with exactly that "reminder". The first ten times it might generously be termed a "reminder" just in case one had forgotten, but by the 100th time, it can come…
> "Reminding ourselves that each one of them had a face and a name is important."
I fully agree that each human affected has a face and a name.
However, at this moment, I am swamped with exactly that "reminder". The first ten times it might generously be termed a "reminder" just in case one had forgotten, but by the 100th time, it can come to feel like emotional manipulation because one hasn't forgotten.
And this can be done by both sides.
As I have said, I have sympathy for the strong passions, I can easily understand where they come from. But when almost EVERY attempt to rationally discuss the options gets hijacked by strong emotionalism, I do not think that lack of passion is the real problem or that further "stirring the emotions" is on the path out of the problem. Sober, unbiased, rational evaluation (grounded in big picture humane values) is in far shorter supply than inflamed passions.
If I rarely heard such "reminders" and most of the discussion was about seeking truth through reason and evidence, I might think that a reminder is needed. But when "reminders" are ubiquitous, and seem to be displacing other discussion, I question the value and role of once again shifting the discussion to the horrors of it all (as if that had been forgotten).
It starts feeling like CSJ folks saying "why don't we ever talk about race?", when such talk is already omnipresent.
> "Reminding ourselves that each one of them had a face and a name is important."
I fully agree that each human affected has a face and a name.
However, at this moment, I am swamped with exactly that "reminder". The first ten times it might generously be termed a "reminder" just in case one had forgotten, but by the 100th time, it can come to feel like emotional manipulation because one hasn't forgotten.
And this can be done by both sides.
As I have said, I have sympathy for the strong passions, I can easily understand where they come from. But when almost EVERY attempt to rationally discuss the options gets hijacked by strong emotionalism, I do not think that lack of passion is the real problem or that further "stirring the emotions" is on the path out of the problem. Sober, unbiased, rational evaluation (grounded in big picture humane values) is in far shorter supply than inflamed passions.
If I rarely heard such "reminders" and most of the discussion was about seeking truth through reason and evidence, I might think that a reminder is needed. But when "reminders" are ubiquitous, and seem to be displacing other discussion, I question the value and role of once again shifting the discussion to the horrors of it all (as if that had been forgotten).
It starts feeling like CSJ folks saying "why don't we ever talk about race?", when such talk is already omnipresent.