On July 4th, 1776 fifty-six delegates came together to sign America’s Declaration Of Independence. What we thought of them as moral human beings or the past they might have had doesn’t matter because I am talking about the people themselves. I am talking about the notion of people coming from different places and pasts joining together and having a civilized meeting about what they believed in even though they all thought differently. They understood that despite their differences they all had a common goal. The safety and betterment of America. That principle of uniting together with different ideas is what this great nation was built on. Instead of having a single king to decide everything, we knew that not one man could possibly know every good idea to govern a people. Instead, we are governed by representatives with diverse ideas from diverse backgrounds. This is what made America so different. It is a pioneer in the democratic system taking it to new heights.
Despite the complicated and arduous government system they created how they made it is quite simple. Conversation. Fair civil debate. This simple philosophical idea is what made philosophy itself. Conversation is key to the exchange of thoughts and ideas. It's how we portray our diversity. It’s a simple concept we are taught in elementary school. We all have different opinions that are valuable and can be used to improve our situation. Going back to our founding father’s example: They knew that conversation was vital. Never before had people looked at each other completely without any thought of who held the most power and had a civilized meeting to declare independence and eventually write the constitution that would belong to the greatest country in the world. But this idea is under attack, and not just the idea but the people who practiced this idea. This is utterly insane. We must preserve our system of conversation. The same system that raised life expectancy to an all time high. The same system that has come the closest to achieving world peace. The same system that has fought against the tyrannies and genocides of the world. We must be willing to fight against the siege on this system and be loud to those who are loud to us.
Aristotle agrees with the importance of conversation too. He believed it is a key ingredient to living a successful life. He became one of the most influential thinkers on reason and virtue spending his life walking about discussing ideas and teaching what he believed. The Lyceum was founded by Aristotle which was a school dedicated to research and teaching. But, while I do think Aristotle certainly was one of the best I don’t think the sole practice of what he was doing was very special. I say this because really what he was doing was simple conversation. This was what all philosophers did. They had a conversation. They talked and questioned how things were and what they can be. This is why I believe that all philosophy in essence is discussion. That is simply it. But imagine where this world would be without it. Imagine if an old tweet Plato or Aristotle wrote when they were 19 got uncovered and they were silenced and canceled. Imagine all the ideas we would have missed out on.
Cancel culture, used as a weapon by the leftist movement, is not only threatening the vital tool of conversation but democracy itself. Politicians who disagree with the woke agenda become the target of the democrat's attack. Employees are being fired from their jobs because they bring conservative perspectives to the table. Not only is the left viciously going after those who are elected but also those who they represent. But to their point, why would they not? They have created a culture in which if you don't agree with their radical agenda then you HAVE to be a white supremacist, a xenophobe, or some other overused word. I agree. If you really are one of those then you should be stopped. The problem is who really gets to place those labels. Clearly, the democrats think it’s them. This is dangerous. A democracy in which one side insults the other in this way just for bringing forth a different set of ideas is no democracy at all.
Cancel culture's crusade on conversation is universally considered a bad thing from both sides. I'm sure many of us have heard of "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate" otherwise known as Harper's Letter published on July 7, 2020. This was a group of mostly liberals who, despite their leaning, were able to see the attack our first amendment is under. It was a letter signed by 153 people defending free speech. I truly believe that a majority of people would disagree with the censorships that the far left is making if it weren't so covered up by our media and social platforms. From a citizen’s perspective, all they see is the headlines "White Man Tweets Racist Comment, He Is Fired" and they see nothing wrong. It isn't until your 15 paragraphs deep that you get the real story. It's not the right, it’s not the moderate, it’s not even the liberals, it's the radical leftist that wishes to seek out and destroy anyone who opposes their plans for one thing alone. Power. And they will lie to their own supporters to achieve this.
