A Donald Trump presidency is pissing people off again. And it forces us to think: how should we engage with each other? The problem only grows when the president is no example for us.
Alumni Hall rector Br. Dennis Gunn has spent a lot of time thinking about this question in his book, “Educating for Civic Dialogue in an Age of Uncivil Discourse.” His answer is firm: do not back down from the controversial sh*t.
“Educating for cosmopolitan citizenship should aim ‘to soften oppositional identities’ and to promote ‘cosmopolitan exchange’ with people of diverse backgrounds, diverse positions and diverse ways of seeing the world,” Gunn wrote. This requires educators to engage students in discourses that “do not turn away from controversy for the sake of a false truce, but weigh deeply into controversy for the sake of finding a more lasting peace.”
Br. Dennis, as he is known to me and the other Dawgs of Alumni, told me during an hour on my WVFI radio show that he is “an unapologetic optimist.” I am an unapologetic pessimist: I like to simply say, “we’re f***ed” to describe how I am feeling about the state of our world. Indeed, I think the forces of wealth and power in our nation’s politics are presently lined up in tandem in a very evil way, and resistance is extremely subdued despite its righteousness.
But Br. Dennis has a point. If we end up shying away from discourse, even if we think the other side of an argument is, as I do, “fascist,” then we also give up any hope in democracy. It is the same for those in support of Donald Trump, too, who I often find hard to engage with on real policies.
I love a good sense of humor as much as the next guy, but if you are asked why, for instance, you support the reopening of Guantanamo Bay, it is willful ignorance to switch the subject with a joke about trans women no longer playing in women’s sports rather than answering the question earnestly.
I know the recent editorial calling on Notre Dame to invite President Trump to commencement was controversial. And we’re certainly optimistic about Notre Dame students’ abilities to truly engage in civil discourse. But if we lose all hope, if we refuse to actually engage with one another on these issues, then what are we even doing here?
You can contact Liam at lprice3@nd.edu.
