Differing perspectives

One of our most recent lectures touched on something that's been a recurring theme in the class. Well, technically it was an interview with a lobbyist, not a lecture, but close enough. The interview subject said that to persuade legislators, he needs to approach them and the issue from their perspective. What is it they find important? What is it that they care about?

Throughout the course we've been touching on this overall idea that everyone surrounding this issue has their own priorities and goals. And it's important to understand those and engage with them in order to hopefully come to some reasonable resolution.

Librarians tend to place a high priority on intellectual freedom; the freedom to speak, read, see, and think whatever you like.

Some parents and others place a high priority on protecting children from immoral or negative influences. (Whether the materials they oppose are actually immoral or a negative influence on children is beside the point of this post.)

Some people, often represented by law enforcement agencies, place a high priority on keeping honest citizens safe from harm.

But these priorities will come into conflict. We'd all like to live in a place where we have absolute intellectual freedom, and law enforcement is able to keep us perfectly safe without intruding on our freedoms, and no child (or adult) is exposed to material that may traumatize them or lead them to immoral actions. Unfortunately such a society is impossible.

So we're left in this imperfect world where we each struggle for our priorities. But each of these groups have a reasonable goal, we just disagree on how far the goals of the others should be compromised for our goal. And by attempting to see issues from the perspective of the other side, we can hopefully find some common ground and language to resolve issues as they arise.

<sarcasm>Unless they're trying to ban the dictionary; that's just crazy.</sarcasm>