Justice, Vengeance and the practicalities of civil discourse

Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways and you’re not quite sure what you’re supposed to learn from a negative experience. Other times it works in very obvious ways, and you know exactly what you are being asked to see. 

My last essay “Silence, violence and the death of civil discourse” was, at its heart, a lament on the current state of public discourse and a call for us to move beyond the repetitive cycles of polarisation and cancel culture, to civil, restorative and generous ways of navigating difference and conflict. 

Whilst I didn’t say it directly, one of the assumptions underpinning this essay was that this is ultimately about choice. That the bridge from the nightmare of polarisation to the dream of healthy dialogue is each one of us choosing to do things differently. 

But perhaps not so..