In my post about pluralism the other day, I mentioned in passing a crucial proviso: those who wish to force their positions on the rest of us have thereby placed themselves outside what Michael Oakeshott called the human conversation.
I don't mean to idealize human relations. Every society lies somewhere on a continuum from pure power to pure persuasion, with thoroughgoing totalitarianism on one end and perhaps small-scale hunter-gatherer bands on the other end. Yet when it comes to matters of conscience and belief, I see no place for power; this is the realm of persuasion plain and simple.
It's true that persuasion requires both time and patience. That's why most revolutionaries have no time for time and no patience for patience: society must be overhauled from the ground up, and right now!
Power and persuasion are polar opposites, which is why it's so dangerous to equate the two. As we've seen with the recent college protests (starting at my alma mater Columbia University), when silence is violence then violence becomes speech. It's especially troubling and telling that this transformation has happened at institutions which for centuries were bastions of free inquiry. In the face of this deep moral and intellectual disintegration, the best we can do as individuals is to rededicate ourselves to persuasion in our own lives.
(Cross-posted at philosopher.coach.)
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