Warren, Great!
(I hope like Rupert that here could be a simple way to say that I like! Nothing to add at the moment.)
···
Eetu
Lähettäjä: Warren Mansell [mailto:wmansell@gmail.com]
Lähetetty: 4. kesäkuutata 2017 14:51
Vastaanottaja: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Aihe: Mad idea?
Ok, I can’t help trying to use PCT to try to address our current issues with terrorism. And for anyone asking, yes I was in London last night, but luckily far away from the area of the attacks.
This morning I was reading the responses to our (Muslim) Mayor Of London’s commentary. They were shocking, on both sides. So offensive to each other. Conflict escalation big time. I am also struck by the need to want to moderate social
media and both the impossibility of this and its apparent clash with liberal values. I was also struck by how much in common people those who express themselves in aggressive and offensive ways have with one another! If they weren’t aware they were of opposite
cultures, and could jointly have a go at a third party, they would get on marvellously!
It strikes me that the problem is nothing to do with religion and culture and everything to do with the kindness and respect one receives growing up. I suddenly thought of our Mayor’s use of the word ‘cowardly’ to describe them. This is
not quite right but it points to the fact that there seems to be no safe forum for people to criticise our western/liberal values without it getting nasty. What if there was? Like good scientists, shouldn’t we all value receiving constructive criticism? Shouldn’t
everyone have the chance to develop the skill of resolving conflict without it escalating to a degree that it makes it worse or causes other conflicts?
So, the idea is a website… see below … Note, this is not pie in the sky. I have a meeting with the holder of a massive international anti-radicalisation grant - Prof Hilary Pilkington on Thursday. I also want to talk to her about MOL
as a method to train community leaders to help raise self-awareness in ‘angry’ people in their community as a prev entative strategy.
THE IDEA. YES It is a bunch of paradoxes - a forum for criticism of liberal values moderated in a big brother way by a liberally minded expert - but that is the whole point. It’s like family therapy via social
media… the biggest challenge is the 24hr expert moderation of content…
Free speech site that openly encourages the criticism of British/American/Western/liberal values but is tightly moderated to remove or edit ALL violent and offensive language.
Aims to have a safe, respectful forum t o challenge and protest against our western society
Find that potentially aggressive people have more in common across cultural divides than they think. I am not sure whether the website would actually get evidence that, for example a white supremacist and an
Islamic jihadi ended up agreeing with one another, and then expose this with their consent, but that would be a key way to push reorganisation of people’s values.
The website through its moderation would essentially provide training in how to express oneself and be assertive without being offensive, aggressive, or violent
The catch - this in itself is a Western value - but it will be used to moderate the site until that value changes!
The site should provide creative solutions to our society and advance our values for the 21st century - help them ‘go up a level’ that is truly global, not just the western liberal view of what global should
mean.
It needs to engage people who would otherwise be radical, stubborn, and offensive, not intellectuals who already write in the New Yorker or The Guardian.
People could use the website to challenge:
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free speech itself
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human rights either generally or specific human rights
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tolerance of unusual or dangerous practices
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assumptions of how different genders or sexualities should be treated
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how children are treated
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how old people are treated
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portrayals of people in the media
-
capitalism
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atheism
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multiculturalism
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acceptance of all religions
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‘innocent until proven guilty’
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‘turning the other cheek’
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much more…
Any thoughts?
< div style=“color: rgb(69, 69, 69); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;”>PS I hope that the PCT influence is clear?
Warren