Radically Moderate Confessions
The line between prudence and cowardice....
I’ve been struggling a bit on the blog front lately.
Most obviously, things have been very busy, which is always a reasonable excuse for anything and everything.
But I try to avoid allowing generic busy-ness to cover for other kinds of sins, so I’ve also done some self-assessment and noticed a few things.
One (maybe) interesting trend is that I’ve been focusing more on theoretical work on the blog lately. I’ve had to ask myself why that’s been the case, given all the chaos that’s going on in the worlds of academia and foreign affairs and U.S. politics. We’re going through a time when polarization is some of the highest I’ve ever seen across a range of institutional contexts. It would seem like a radically moderate take on some of these issues would be both relevant and useful.
While I probably will wade into the political debates as we get closer to the U.S. election, I’ve been thinking more broadly about what this blog should be and how to think about current events, particularly the most polarizing current events out there. And I realized that as I think about these questions, they have immediate relevance for all my fellow Radical Moderates out there.
Because for many of us, moderation asks us to think not just about how we respond to certain situations, but whether to respond at all.
I’ll start with the question of public responses to controversial topics because that’s what started my thinking here, but these musings apply to a range of other things as well, including interpersonal conversations and workplace etiquette.
Radically Moderate Questions About Blogging
Am I the Right Person - Right Now - on *This* Topic?
One principled argument for not wading in on controversial topics is that - at least on some of these topics - I’m not an expert and don’t have all the relevant details. It therefore feels like a very radically moderate thing to do to NOT comment on specific issues that I’m not really conversant in. In general, the world would be much better off if people were better at recognizing when their opinion is not useful, wanted, or even based in reality. Sadly, we’re really bad at that as evidenced by most internet comment boards.
I usually know enough to know when I’m fundamentally ignorant, which is a good first step. The answer for me on whether I comment on Middle Eastern relations is a hard “nope”. The answer for how to think about plagiarism in the academy is a “maybe”, because in my current role I handle academic integrity issues every day. And if the issue is U.S. politics, I probably do have something to say precisely because the entire point of this blog is finding a way to undermine the polarization that bedevils us. I admittedly haven’t found much interesting to say about the current exhausting landscape, but that might be because I have also (intentionally) not been paying very close attention to the primaries.
But apart from knowledge, there are other things I’m weighing in the balance that matter too.
How Does Weighing In Affect My Other Roles?
Part of my real-life job is to NOT be a divisive figure for faculty, staff, and students, which includes my off-hours writings. If I were a full-time writer and didn’t have other constituencies to care about, or even if I were *only* a faculty member who is free to plug away on X or Blue Sky or whatever else the kids are using these days, I would invariably feel a bit less hesitant about jumping into current affairs. But with a range of constituencies in my administrative role, it’s hard to balance public commentary against the need to avoid being a lightning rod in an already polarized environment. This would be just as true if I were in the corporate or non-profit world as it is in higher education administration.
Is It Worth It? (The Realities of Polarized Cancel Culture)
Then there’s a much less principled argument for not wading in: I’m in an administrative role that can be stripped from me at any time. I probably *have* been avoiding some topics entirely precisely because I really like my current job and find it enormously fulfilling. Haphazard commentary is not only intellectually unhelpful, but has career implications.
This one though, I’ll admit, I’m much less comfortable with. In order to undermine polarization and false binaries, people do need to be confronted with uncomfortable truths. That’s just life. So balancing fear of cancelation against the need to speak the truth is a hard one.
At the same time, hesitancy based on fear of cancelation is probably - at least in my context - just not thinking creatively enough about the problem. Radically moderate takes don’t have to be popular. But they do need to take a principled stance that most people would at least recognize as thoughtful and rooted in a coherent view of the world. Most of the time - not all of the time - being thoughtful helps you avoid most - though not all - of the really bad effects of speaking out.
More Current Events, But Radically Moderate in Theory and Practice
My conclusion after thinking about this for the last month is that I’ll do a bit more on the current event blogging front while also keeping in mind the principled reasons for doing it. And there are, in fact, really good reasons to comment on current events and controversial issues:
Doing so helps remind us that Radical Moderation isn’t just a commitment to a set of principles, but it also applies to how we apply those principles to real world cases. It’s both theory and practice. This radically moderate application used to be called “prudence” or as Smith called it “propriety,” but since those sound a bit out-of-date and maybe even a bit boring, we’ll just focus on the practice of Radical Moderation.
Practicing and modeling intellectual courage is a good thing that we could all do more of. Thoughtful takes on hard topics should be encouraged, even if they’re a bit risky.
The truth matters. While not all truths need to be said out loud at any and all times, being willing to stand up for truth is what makes progress possible and allows us to move beyond the false binaries that feed polarization. Being willing to stand up for the truth is a deeply and radically moderate act.
That’s it! An analysis and a moderate commitment to incorporate more current stuff moving forward.
What do you think? What kinds of issues do you want Radically Moderate takes on? How do you balance the question of when to wade in in your own lives? What rules do you find helpful for determining when to comment and when to just let it go?
As always, leave a comment, share, and subscribe (if you haven’t already)!