The Middle-Wing Wacko - Introduction

Hi, my name is Larry Dean Pender Jr (yeah, all that) and this is my blog.

I've decided to name it The Middle-Wing Wacko because while I tend to have an unconventional viewpoint on most subjects, my particular brand of lunacy doesn't seem to have a consistent "right" or "left" slant.

Actually, I'll probably spend a lot of time explaining how both "sides" of an issue are deeply, horribly wrong. And I usually will have something to say about how each side is also mischaracterizing their opposition. In fact, that mischaracterization is usually at the root of most of the wrongness of any extreme viewpoint.

When people start to define their positions in terms of their opponents, the situation becomes dysfunctional. At that point polarization can become a serious liability because a productive exchange of ideas becomes impossible. Progress (as envisioned by either side of debate) is effectively halted.

I am very much in favor of taking firm stances on issues. However, any such stance is ill-advised unless there is a real effort to understand both sides of that issue without a lot of emotional bias clouding that evaluation. Better to not have an opinion at all than to have one based in ignorance. Or emotion. Or peer-pressure.

In most cases, if someone really understands all the opposing viewpoints on an issue, they will not find that one is clearly right and the other is wrong. In fact the choice will usually be a very difficult one, almost always a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. And even after this decision they will also have a great deal of sympathy for the opposing viewpoint - because usually the "enemy" has a lot of good points too.

So if your opponents always seem irrational to you, watch out. That means you aren't comprehending their arguments. Possibly because they aren't doing a good job of communicating. Or it could also be what is called a socio-cultural gap - you don't have certain experiences they do, so you aren't aware of basic things they assume everyone must be aware of (and vica-versa). Or it could be deliberate on your part...do you really have an open mind?

Okay, we're due for a time-out, because this was meant to be an introduction to the blog instead of a lecture on cross-cultural communication and rational debate.

As you might have guessed, I have a strong background in the humanities. I recently completed an MA in Sociology at the University of Manchester in England, and before that I received a BA in Philosophy at the University of Alabama. So you can expect a lot of sociological and philosophical analytical systems to worm their way into most of my entries. I do apologize for that [but not really]. At least you have until August to get used to those two before some legal theory gets added into the mix!

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