ENVS 160 has shown me the importance of understanding and change. Without these elements, there is no progress — personal, academic, or otherwise.
A big part of this lesson for me is the realization that the goal of a conversation should be to learn rather than to change the other person’s mind or to tear them down. First of all, changing your peer/friend/opponent’s mind over the span of one discussion is often not feasible. Their opinions do not come out of thin air — there is some sort of reasoning behind them, however flawed that reasoning may look to you. The climate change survey we did at the beginning of the year helped me understand why people have such different perspectives on climate change.
A little understanding can go a long way towards learning. Taking the time to listen to different opinions helps you understand and articulate your own views better as well as engage with peers on a more meaningful level. This is extremely important in an academic setting. Although vicious debates can be great fun, most conversations would benefit from mutual respect and a desire to understand other viewpoints. There is a tendency towards animosity when passionate people discuss important issues. Demonizing your opponent may make it more satisfying to eviscerate them, but at what cost? Tearing someone down is rarely an educational opportunity. Once you start down the path of fighting rather than discussing, it becomes extremely difficult to a) articulate your points, b) understand the other person’s point of view, and c) change your own stance if need be. Feeling understood, or at the very least listened to, helps people to open up and have more productive discussions. The importance of understanding should be applied to all types of team-based tasks, from school projects to activism to policy making. Personal relationships with family and friends can certainly benefit from this approach as well.
It is extremely important to step back and examine where opposing beliefs come from as well as where your own beliefs come from. It is temptingly easy to accept other people’s convictions as truth, but this is a terrible habit to fall into. I am definitely guilty of this, and I suspect most other people are as well. For example, my dad, who, if he subscribed to any “ism,” would be an environmentalist, railed against GMOs for years. I assumed that his stance was based in some sort of empirical evidence and essentially adopted his opinion as my own for quite a while. It wasn’t until well into high school that I bothered to learn about GMOs for myself. Consequently, I discovered that I had been wrong about that issue and that I should probably reevaluate my positions on other issues as well. This taught me that although I think it is vital to have strong convictions, boxing myself into one viewpoint is ultimately detrimental. Actively seeking out information or opinions that contradict my own preconceived notions can only serve to give me a more open mind.
Absorbing contradictory information can be uncomfortable, but, like I mentioned in my first post, confusion and discomfort can be very productive. Being confused means you’re really thinking. I need to work on not being afraid of seeming stupid. I should make an effort to participate in my classes more often, even (or maybe especially) when I am confused. Confusion is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s universal. After all, very few things in this world are truly objective. Even “facts” and “science” that try their very best to steer clear of subjectivity are often contested, as Why We Disagree About Climate Change suggests (Hulme 2009).
In ENVS 160, I have learned how to communicate more effectively through trying to understand a wide variety of perspectives I am wrong very frequently. I have also discovered that my own beliefs are fluid and should be reevaluated regularly. If I am serious about learning, I must not being afraid of unlearning. Having strong convictions is great, but they are not meant to be permanent. Change is a fact (maybe the only fact) of life.
References
Hulme, M. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.