I’m Bored

Posted on 31 January, 2012 by odo

Bored with controversy. No, not with honest debates about unsettled matters or a genuine exchange of ideas through considerate listening and weighing the validity of someone else’s thoughts. No, what I’m bored with is bipolar, uncompromising, argumentative, contrarian grandstanding for the sake of controversy. I’m bored with inane, pointless, stubborn, inflexible attitudes, with the refusal to admit wrong or examine the value of the other’s opinion. And most of all, I’m bored with intractable opinions. All opinions are wrong; they are short on facts, they miss the target. Despite this, opinions usually do contain some truth. They are never completely wrong, never completely correct. That’s what makes them opinions and what makes them dangerously slippery. A good opinion is malleable and open to adjustment as new facts and alternate views come to light.

Facts, on the other hand, are the same for everyone, everywhere. They do not change. Difficulties emerge when facts and opinions get blurred, when established facts are denied or when people refuse to revise their opinions as new evidence presents itself. Arguing facts is boring. There’s nothing to debate.

I love an argument when it involves an openminded dialog, a free-trade of opinions and facts not limited to simply two polarized extremes. A dialog where concession and exception are recognized, relished and relinquished. Controversy is productive only when antithetical opposites are surrendered, a middle ground is admitted, and the possibility of consensus is conceded.

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TTBOOK

Posted on 24 January, 2012 by odo

Here’s my, not quite latest, (new) Discovery to share with you. Although I’ve been listening for months, it’s the consistency and lasting power that’s spurred this review. There are many other podcasts I listen to regularly, some initially were attractive, but alas, proved intellectually weak and lacking in substance. Not so with To The Best Of Our Knowledge, an interview program from Wisconsin Public Radio. Of all the thought provoking programs coming out of public radio and television, TTBOOK has to be among the top three for its range, depth and thoroughness. There are throngs of like programs with similar formats, none of its calibre. Each week’s broadcast/podcast focusses on a single subject spotlighted from multiple angles through the insight of a few brilliantly selected guests. The interviewers, Jim Fleming, Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson draw out their interviewees with attentiveness and scrupulously well thought-through questioning. If that were all there is to it, it’d be an outstanding program. They top those skills with their most impressive asset; the treatment of each topic with reasoned composure and penetrating adeptness. Even when the subject may, at first, have you thinking, “I’m not interested in this,” they’ll turn it inside-out, then dig in to find the intrigue you may never have suspected was lying within. To The Best Of Our Knowledge lives up to its name. It is To The Best Of Our Knowledge.

Go listen : [TTBOOK]

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