CHARLEMONT — How do we bridge today’s political and religious divides?
That was the question that kicked off Charlemont Forum’s 2018 season when about 75 people turned out Monday night to hear Marlboro College professors Meg Mott and Amer Latif at Charlemont Federated Church, where the academics spoke about public discourse and how we talk to each other.
“It’s a better thing to disagree, to hang out with somebody who does not think like you do. It’s good for democracy, it’s good for the brain, it’s good for the human spirit — especially when those disagreements are productive,” said Mott, who teaches political theory. “Democracy depends on deliberation. … Every single hot-button issue in the United States has a legitimate argument on both sides.”
Latif, who teaches religious studies and was raised in Pakistan, pointed to the dissonance between a perception that we’re each at the center of the universe and that as part of our nature, we identify with a specific group — and yet we know that we are not, and that we have to relate to the diversity of people.
And pointing to the “self-inflicted harm of wanting someone else’s misery” through the Biblical story of Jonah, Latif led the audience in a guided meditation imagining “a person with whom you have difficulty, who makes you angry, who frustrates you,” and wishing for that person the same good health, safety, happiness and giving and receiving kindness.
Yet, Mott added, “Can we create these kind of containers (for transforming our anger) and then move into it with the strong disagreements we actually have? The human condition is filled with conflict.”
That became obvious with questions from the audience, especially on an evening when the news was about the U.S. president backing the Russian president’s word that he hasn’t tried to undermine American elections.
“I have to erase what I know to follow your direction,” said Sandra Boston of Greenfield. “This brings in the division of politics with spirituality. I want to integrate those two things. Yet … I have to erase my emotional reaction to the news.”
Mott responded, “If you feel like this is an opportunity to create a new world order, I think it’s time for us to wake up and begin to articulate what those values are. This is an opportunity, a real time when we’re being tested to say what are the most enduring values that we wish to make a claim for? If we’re going to choose to do things differently, I think this is … a ripe historical moment (to) … take that fear and get smart.”
David Arfa of Shelburne Falls added, “I feel there’s so much shock that it makes it very challenging. The need to have those conversations is shocking, because our political leaders are using demagoguery in building our fear.”
Mott said, “We solve our problems not by thinking it through, the hard stuff, but by trying to say, ‘Those people are bad, we’re good, we can take care of this. And we’re shocked that the world hasn’t changed.”
Yet, “how do you behave when your government is separating families, taking away children, losing children?” Delores Root of Shelburne asked, stressing there are times “when moral outrage is truly appropriate. … I do not want my government behaving this way! We’re very challenged in the particular climate we’re in because we’re so polarized. There is a place to draw a line and say, ‘No.’”
Mott said she did not disagree, “But what do you do when it’s so clearly, ‘This is wrong?’”
Latif suggested that instead of both sides being “shocked” at the other’s positions, “maybe we should spend more time in the middle,” at least to judge the idea as wrong without judging those who hold it.
“If we judged the person, then we, too, have judged ourselves in some ways,” he said, stressing that it is important to take a stand and make a moral argument in a way that the tone allows the moral argument to be heard clearly.
The Charlemont Forum will continue July 31 at 7 p.m. with Josh Silver, the founder and director of Represent Us, a national nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that is actively addressing comprehensive campaign finance and election reforms across the nation.