How do we have meaningful conversations with people we disagree with?
The Provost’s Ethics Colloquium and CSU’s Center for Public Deliberation is hosting a panel discussion and community conversation that addresses that very question. Beyond Partisan Politics: Bridging Divides by Overcoming Our Echo Chambers will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 PM on Friday, Nov. 8, in the Lory Student Center Theatre. Each of the three panelists will take a different perspective and help facilitate the discussions.
The event is free and open to the public, but registration has reached capacity. The panel discussion will be livestreamed; find the link at the Ethics Colloquium website: ethics.colostate.edu
Gwen Gorzelsky, director of The Institute for Teaching and Learning, explained that Beyond Partisan Politics is designed to help attendees deepen skills for engaging in meaningful, mutually respectful conversations with people who hold different views.
“These conversations involve identifying shared values and negotiating our differences to lay a foundation for understanding key issues,” she said. “From this foundation, we can incorporate a wide range of perspectives to construct better solutions to society’s challenges and achieve greater economic, educational, political, legal, and cultural growth.”
Creating trust
The speakers include Joan Blades, founder of MoveOn.org; John Gable, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and founder of AllSides; and Pedro Silva of the First Congregational First Boulder, UCC. Their goal is to create trust and help people realize that aggression is not the only way to discuss these topics. “It’s not about everyone agreeing, it’s about everyone understanding,” explained Blades.
She already has a lot of experience teaching how to achieve a peaceful discussion, through TED talks and her website called Living Room Conversations, where aid is provided in having some of these hard discussions.
A big push for her wanting to participate in this discussion is that in this political climate, opinions are pulling relationships with friends and family apart. That is why one of her main themes in all these discussions is “relationships before opinions,” explaining that especially with the upcoming holidays, it is important to keep that sentiment in mind whenever having a conversation.
Silva also expressed the importance of not demonizing each other during these interactions. He explained that fear often stands in the way of conversations and understanding.
“Out of a sense of survival, we make enemies of those we perceive as putting our well-being at risk,” Silva said. “It is easy to do but can be more damaging than anything else.”
Silva hopes people from all walks of life to come and be a part of the experience, which will include an opportunity for attendees to participate in their own roundtable discussion, facilitated by members of the Center for Public Deliberation.
“I feel a sense of compassion for those who want to connect with others who they disagree with on the surface,” he added. Silva really hopes that the event will open up the floor to healthy discussion by creating an environment of learning and understanding.
More information about the event is at the Provost’s Ethics Colloquium’s website, ethics.colostate.edu.
