Will Braun said he had done some work with indigenous people in Northern Manitoba whose land would be affected greatly by hydro-electric dams being constructed. They ask you to stop the work you are doing because it is harming our first nation.  At the same time, others say we need this development for more badly needed hydro-electric power and sometimes jobs in their community.   There was a lot of tension. The good guys and bad guys are all mixed up. None of the people can be dismissed. How do you dissolve  the tension? How do you hold the tension in check?

Added to that, Will Braun is a journalist. In that job he has from time to time been called to interview people with whom he disagrees. How should he speak to such people?

One time, when he was interviewing someone about climate change who was opposed to doing anything about it, Braun realized he had never seriously considered the views of such climate deniers. Then he decided to do that. Take those contrarian views to seriously to heart.  That helped ease the tension.

This is an aspect of intellectual modesty. Consider that you might be wrong.  Don’t make an idol of your own opinions.

Will Braun had what  I thought was a very inteersting way of saying what he felt we should not do. First, we must remember the obvious that none of us is infallible. Whether you are a person of the left, the right, or the centre, there are reasonable people of goodwill who do not share your fundamental convictions. This does not mean that all opinions are equally valid or that all speakers are equally worth listening to. It certainly does not mean that there is no truth to be discovered. Nor does it mean that you are necessarily wrong. But “they” are not necessarily wrong either. So someone who has not fallen into what Braun called  “the idolatry of worshiping his or her own opinions” and loving them above truth itself will want to listen to people who see things differently in order to learn what considerations—evidence, reasons, arguments—led them to a place different from where one happens, at least for now, to find oneself.

As John Stuart Mill, my favourite philosopher on such issues said, a recognition of the possibility that we may be in error is a good reason to listen to and honestly consider—and not merely to tolerate grudgingly—points of view that we do not share, and even perspectives that we find shocking or scandalous. Intellectual modesty is also very important if one actually wants to learn from the other.

What’s more, as Mill noted, even if one happens to be right about this or that disputed matter, seriously and respectfully engaging people who disagree will deepen one’s understanding of the truth and sharpen one’s ability to defend it. That is what truth seeking is all about,

Some of us, me included, have a hard time being humble. That is not helpful.  Humility  can go a long way towards melting the extremes.