When to talk

27. February 2008 by emeris.

In avoiding doing homework the other night I ended up in a conversation about when it is appropriate to add to the public discourse on a topic. On one hand it is important that everyone have a voice and in some sense impossible to not have a voice in a democratic system (as not saying anything is equiviolent to agreeing with the status quo). On the other hand it is not worth saying anything if you have nothing to say or are not qualified to say anything. For example are 20ish year old males who have not fathered a child qualified to talk about the emotional ramifications of abortion? It is easy to say how one would react in a given situation, however in my experience the way that one does react in tough situations does not always match how one would have liked one’s self to have reacted. All the logic in the world is useless if the underling assumptions are wrong.

This rapidly generalizes to a whole host of other issues, are only rape victims qualified to talk about rape? are only people in the military qualified to judge soldier’s actions during war time? (i say no, civilians must dictate how the military will behave)

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