Respectful Disagreement

Dave Winer is facilitating this discussion.  This is a tough session to run and an impossible one to both blog and engage.  Dave's a liberal.  The room is mostly conservative.

Transparency and accountability, Stan Brown, a lawyer, suggests as basic values.  I think maybe passion and creativity are as important or more important than "T&A."   I get quite passionate about this.   I think it's a good example of respectful, but charged disagreement.  The discussion moves on to others who also have something to say so once again I'm not the center of the universe.  Damn... coulda swore I wuz.

John Jay Hooker suggests that the practice of blogging is a lot like the practice of law... adversarial by nature.  Questions we're addressing get down to good manners... we have to learn to disagree without being disagreeable.

Debate versus dialog...  the crossfire marketing concept has come to dominate public discourse in main stream media. 

Question is asked:  Does the blogosphere contribute to the polarization of public perspective or does it have a mediating effect?

Good passionate discussion going on.  Dave has stepped back from facilitating role as the group gels to a polite and excited exchange.