As eloquently put by Clint Eastwood in a Dirty Harry movie: A man's got to know his limitations. If I (or anyone else) tried to espouse, defend, refute, or change any/every cause, ideology or hare-brained notion that crossed my path, there would be no time for any other life-activity we might wish to pursue. Especially the ones conducive to leading a productive existence. This is relevant to a passage from Kenneth Burke's TOWARDS A BETTER LIFE, pg. 200: ..."Though no one would CHOOSE failure, we may yet maintain that failure is a choice, since one may persist in attitudes which make failure inevitable'...(cap. emphasis, mine). As I have agreed with John Dewey that beliefs are 'shady', I must also contend that we are hard put to alter peoples' beliefs when those are based on 'moral' or 'ideological' 'principles'. (Sorry about the scare quotes, but words, as they are used today,have little or no relationship with how they were used a hundred years or more ago.) Pursuant to Burke's declamation, people embrace failure at a rapid clip today, through their attitudes and behaviors. I may think Donald Trump is among the top three worst presidents ever to serve. A hundred other people may believe quite the opposite. I won't change my mind and they are unlikely to change theirs. These are, in the best sense of Burke's notion, choices, whether anyone does or does not consider them failures.

The actions involved, of necessity, lead to consequences, even if those are of minimal, or better, ephemeral impact. We could talk this issue into the next century. Most of us, alive now, will not be able to do so. Tolerance is what we have allotted ourselves. It does not resolve problems. And, it never will... Sugar-coated poisons are still poisons.

I found it interesting that I was listening to this program and enjoying it very much and then I believe it was Ken said he could not agree with Mormon’s. Really why do you assume that? Not all “Mormon’s” or Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as I prefer, fit the mold you believe in.. I believe in a devision of Church and State. I believe in loving my fellow man not judging them. I don’t believe the State should come into my Church and tell me what I have to believe. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump and I don’t believe in abortion but I don’t agree with mandating my belief. But can we agree abortion should not be used as birth control.? Again I was just a bit surprised I was identified as someone who you could not possibly agree with.
Thank you for the opportunity to explain my possibilities.

No one knows everything, but to make an informed decision, we need to know first. Sometimes, people argue before they can gather enough information. Sometimes, they may have preconception and are biased in their opinion. Sometimes, they obtain the facts, think about them, but reach different conclusions anyway. People do not make decision in a vacuum. They have their immediate surroundings which they need to take into account and so it’s not surprising that they come up with different opinions. But for me, so long it’s an informed and rational decision and people are held responsible for whatever consequences their decisions bring, it is fine.

The trick is not figuring out which disagreements are truth impinging or time wasteful. The trick is to consider the common life. We should always be open to moral persuasion regarding the common path.

Openness isn't to say that we should not be steadfast in our beliefs and reasons. We need to question those reasons. Change is born of unexpectedness. Listening to the man who has peed himself on the bus can teach as well as disgust.

I will always be a man who's open to persuasion. We need to rebuild what was never there. You can't do that without persuasion or worse.

I am channeling my inner Tim Finn more than a bit here. His lyric "Persuasion" is one of the pillars of my musical youth. I won't be talked out of that so easily.

I enjoyed the opening conversation about beliefs. It is witty and wise and shows a progression from simple (or simplistic) to complex and, one could say, fraught, or at least potentially so. That exercise points to the sophistication of how we come to our beliefs, how, as we focus in on what matters most to us and mash it up with reality, we find that in order to live honorably according to our values, we will need to take action that potentially ruffles feathers at least, and could escalate into violent resistance at worst. It seems to me that humans have reached a stage of evolution where once we're clear about our values and that we must make choices on how to honor them as we live, we must also find a way to do so effectively and non-violently. Bringing up the power of listening to each other is a crucial light to shine upon this evolutionary change. Our "conflict tools" of the past need some "re-tooling" so that we can persuade as well as appeal to each person's knowing of "the Good", on a personal as well as communal, and far reaching levels. The need to be right needs to be released because it leads to unnecessary defensive actions that cause disenfranchisement and potentially, destruction. It's also important to argue the fine points and to agree to disagree and to compromise and to not compromise. Knowing when to do all of that is tricky and that is where integrity, self-knowledge and a desire to serve the common good as well as our own personal good, is the only way it will work.