Promoting Civil Society

Kirk J. Schneider and Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi suggest that a massive initiative to create mindfulness and dialogue is needed to preserve our security and freedoms. They commend the work of Better Angels, which offers structured dialogues between conservatives and liberals.

My own take is that much of today's incivility is a competitive "team" culture, where the individual is socially motivated to support their "gang" even to the point of supporting (even engaging in) repugnant behavior. In that case, a national draft which caused diverse individuals to work together may have more impact than an intellectual dialogue.

-DD