{"id":11359,"date":"2021-01-27T06:38:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T11:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=11359"},"modified":"2021-01-27T07:16:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T12:16:03","slug":"an-atrocity-the-extreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=11359","title":{"rendered":"an atrocity. the extreme."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Part 2 of our discussion from David French\u2019s Divided We Fall,<\/em> although bear with me; it will take us an intentional minute to get there\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall I witnessed a horrendous outcome. No doubt an unmistakable atrocity. It was such a gross injustice, in fact, I actually looked on Twitter to see what was trending; maybe there was more we could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was November 20th \u2014 feeling like just one more crushing blow in an ongoing, crushing year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were in Minneapolis \u2014 or at least watching events unfold there on TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My beloved Boilermakers were playing the Golden Gophers from the University of Minnesota on the gridiron. It was a Friday night, and we had fallen behind early; it was seemingly one of those death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts kind of games, where we just couldn\u2019t seem to make any progress. Whatever we did, we were still behind; they played better. There was mistake after mistake. That is, until the game\u2019s climactic conclusion. Redemption was near.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down 11 at the half, our young men persevered in enemy territory. We continued to close the gap. With less than a mere minute to go, we were driving; we had a sweet set up. QB Jack Plummer throws a perfect strike to tight end Payne Durham. Durham reels it in \u2014 \u201cTOUCHDOWN!\u201d The Purdue celebration begins!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then came the flag. With no visible contact on live television, while one official emphatically signaled the score, another threw that crappy yellow flag for offensive pass interference. The touchdown was wiped off the board. Plummer threw an interception on the next play. Game over. Purdue loses. Horrendous, indeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite pastimes is watching Purdue sports. It doesn\u2019t matter which sport or which season \u2014 football, basketball, volleyball, you-name-it. Any team\u2019s torso adorned with \u201cPurdue Pete,\u201d the \u201cBoilermaker Special,\u201d or the historic griffin (affectionately referred to on campus as\u00a0 \u201cthe flying chicken\u201d<\/a>) is the immediate object of my affection, attention, and adoration. And no doubt, the absolute, undeniable best way to watch Purdue sports is to watch with Purdue fans. [Insert special shout out to each of you here.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We share the same passion. We get the way each other thinks. We cheer \u2014 and jeer \u2014 in unison. But there\u2019s one more thing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We share a perspective. We share a bias. No matter how physically different we may be, we share \u2014 as referenced in Chapter 5 by David French\u2019s excellent book, Divided We Fall <\/em>\u2014 what\u2019s called a \u201cpredeliberation tendency\u201d in regard to Purdue University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To \u201cdeliberate\u201d<\/strong> means to engage in long and careful consideration. It means to carefully weigh or cautiously consider. It is marked by a slow decision-making process. A predeliberation<\/strong> tendency<\/strong> is different; such means prior to any actual consideration, we\u2019re already inclined to lean a certain way or believe a certain thing. Objectivity is decreased. The comfort and convenience of watching the Purdue game with Purdue fans, therefore, is that I don\u2019t have to seriously consider any other angle as credible or worthy of weighing. I don’t have to even interact with the holder of those angles, thinking I know enough \u2014 that my fellow Purdue fans are enough. Predeliberation thus omits the care and the caution that prudent deliberation requires.

But there\u2019s one more aspect to a predeliberation tendency which may be the reason French suggests that \u201cif you read only one chapter in this book, this is the chapter to read.\u201d Utilizing the research of former University of Chicago law professor and Obama administration official, Cass Sunstein, French discusses how group deliberation with persons of varied perspective actually sharpens us and leads to better outcomes. And \u2014 and this is what\u2019s concerning about what we\u2019ve been witnessing play out in front of us for years<\/em> \u2014 when we fail to deliberate extensively with those of varied perspective, the \u201cdeliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments.\u201d In other words, deliberation absent varied perspective leads to the extreme.<\/strong> There are indeed extreme perspectives being pushed today \u2014 incredulously guised as normal and acceptable \u2014 by intelligent people on both the left and the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disagree? As always, the Intramuralist welcomes constructive, respectful disagreement. But first note my words above\u2026
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 a horrendous outcome\u2026 an unmistakable atrocity\u2026 such a gross injustice\u2026 in enemy territory, for God\u2019s sake!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That describes a game.<\/em> Just a game.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand that I still believe my conclusion from that game was accurate. I believe, too, that the result had consequences and was unfair. However, without sincerely weighing ample, other perspective, my reaction becomes exaggerated and extreme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliberating with only the likeminded, friends, increases our indignation. It also makes us worse at what we do and less sensible in how we react. Hence, as we continue to advocate for unity, justice, and liberty for all, we need to avoid the extreme, as the extreme perspective is challenged to see how wise unity, justice, and liberty for all actually are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Part 2 of our discussion from David French\u2019s Divided We Fall, although bear with me; it will take us an intentional minute to get there\u2026) Last fall I witnessed a horrendous outcome. No doubt an unmistakable atrocity. It was such a gross injustice, in fact, I actually looked on Twitter to see what was trending; … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “an atrocity. the extreme.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11359"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11368,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions\/11368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}