With the countdown to the presidential election ticking away, politics will inevitably be somewhere on everyone’s mind. Disagreements are inevitable, but whether they’re civil discussions that provide insight into nuanced beliefs or hostile mudslinging contests that devolve into personal slander is entirely dependent on us. What usually occurs, however, is neither of these. However much politics is on people’s radar, many are too hesitant to even bring it up.
Political debates allow individuals to have their ideas challenged and critiqued by others. Listening and understanding are central components of classroom discussions, and they’re practiced in most conversations. But when we touch upon politics at school, students are unsure whether their beliefs won’t be accepted or will be met with too much controversy. Members of the community avoid anything near politics when conversing on the Quad because they fear that contradicting viewpoints will devolve into personal insults and accusations. According to a Chronicle poll, 67 percent of 115 students surveyed said they believed members of the community did not welcome a variety of political opinions. Only 47.8 percent said they could express their political opinion freely. With only half of the student body comfortable with sharing their opinions, students feel their ideas will be hastily criticized. As a result, political discourse is either avoided entirely or engaged with shallowly — and when conversations do break out, they leave hard feelings and bitterness behind.
Students need to be more civil and understand each other’s views. In the face of political divisiveness and inevitable disagreement, we can’t surrender to our own beliefs and choose to never be open-minded with others. Whether these conversations take place in our history classrooms, on the Quad or in the real world, discourse is the only way to test and develop our beliefs. As students become adults, they need to be prepared to defend their stances against various beliefs, knowing how to compromise and argue their proposals into tangible policy. If we continue to dodge conversation, we’ll be left entrenched in a nation that’s increasingly polarized and unsatisfied.
Moreover, this avoidance of genuine and civil discussion results in many removing themselves from politics altogether. Seniors might find themselves content to cast their ballot based on shallow impressions of political correctness or potentially inaccurate social media stories. With 67 percent of the student body believing that the community is politically unaware, a disproportional amount of students do not think we are ready to make informed decisions in politics. With such little sensibility for issues and no deep discussions to foster our thinking skills, we leave ourselves with nothing but an uninformed and disengaged intellect.
Truthfully, politics is deeply personal — it has serious implications on how we identify with ourselves, live our lives freely and care for historically marginalized groups. Those issues will never be addressed if we are too fearful of engaging in conversation, and we can’t expect ourselves to genuinely understand the backgrounds behind policies if we don’t debate and learn about them. In other words, even if having a political conversation seems personal and potentially offensive, having genuine and productive discourse is necessary to truly create the world we want. This isn’t to say that hateful opinions are permitted, only that we must work to discuss and help those opinions recognize their potentially harmful implications.
If everyone were to at least attempt to be more politically civil, we would find ourselves more willing to actively help each other become engaged citizens that build the world we truly want. Unfortunately, there is no way to do that when we all agree to bury our minds in our own beliefs, looking at politics like an arena of insults.
