My conversation with Jasmin Faulk begins with what Saudi Arabia was like when she was growing up, and what has and hasn’t changed since then. Jasmin talks about the fire of youth, the wisdom that comes from age, and how society needs both activists and advocates to move forward. She also shares her desire to have genuine and difficult conversations with people with very different worldviews in an attempt to find, or create common ground.
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Ah, Saudi Arabia! So rich! So sparsely populated! Why don't they carve out a corner the area of Israel + Gaza + the West Bank for a Palestnian state? There's even a river and a sea! Or is Bibi still preferable to Mr. Bone Saw? And now that l'm 50, can rich Arabs stop chasing me for my tall height, fair skin, light eyes, blonde hair and European porcelain doll looks?
ReplyDeleteJasmin Faulk-Dickerson sounds like a more elevated version of Mel Robbins, the author of Let Them, although l concede that l haven't read either author. Life is too short to validate idiots, ladies! I gave away my last personal democracy free pass a long time ago, and l have none left...
And no, 'live and let live' is not mature, it is childish, as all studies from multiple disciplines converge on the fact that pluralism leads to chaos without the types of robust institutions Humanity 2.0 seems incapable of establishing and maintaining. Wishing there were a middle ground doesn't make it so, and people don't need to be harmed directly by others living as they like for the latter's very existence to undermine the former's ability to do the same. Don't believe me? Good luck maintaining social cohesion when half the population wants to go Trad and half wants to go Prog. How would that work, exactly, when the former is predicated on female subjugation and dependency and the latter on equality and independence? By all means square that circle, if you can!
Having said all that, when l am in the mood for a meeting of the minds with someone who holds views in opposition to mine, l find it useful to start off by establishing what our ultimate end goals are. If they are maximizing human flourishing and minimizing suffering, and my interlocutor is intelligent and arguing in good faith, then it should be easy to defend why our respective positions are preferable means to the same end...