View from the Cheap Seats
August 29 - September 4, 2016
Remembering your place
By William O. "Bill" James
I found myself in some skirmishes on Facebook a few weeks ago. I know, I have written about this before and claimed to have stopped, but there I was again trying to convince someone I knew 30 years ago and a couple of folks I did not even know that they were wrong about something that they were never going to agree with me about. While I am sure that I was correct, Patti again pointed out to me that I was not changing any one’s position and to the extent the people I knew long ago were still my friends on any level, they won’t be in the future if I didn’t quit arguing with them.
As a defense attorney, I often find myself in the tough spot of illuminating a situation in the proper lighting so that the jury sees the case from my client’s perspective. Over the years I have proven to be pretty good at shining the light so that people see the world from a different angle. This allows the fact finder to gain better understanding about what has happened and why it happened. It is really no more than letting the jury, walk in my client’s shoes. If the jury relates to the accused, the “justice” is better than if they do not. It is that easy and that complex.
It is easy to hate people on the other side of the world or across town if you don’t understand where they are coming from or what they want. Strangers are strange and they are especially scary when you believe that they wish you ill. When we boil people and their intentions down to the bare bones basics, we often lose perspective. Sometimes, the simplicity in your analysis takes away objectivity in your opinions.
Hate and blind disagreement is also much easier if you don’t over think about the problem or the issue at hand. If I can blame a person or a problem based on someone else’s religion, race, creed, or other single attribute, the complexity of my emotions vanishes into a sea of generalizations where our need to analyze the way we think about something vanishes and the world is simple. Boiling your emotions down in this way prevents you from having to think. If you are not careful, your world becomes black and white and there is no room for gray. Gray is hard, because when things are gray you have to think.
The truth is, I don’t push a lot of opinions on Facebook. Kinda like this column, I ask a lot of questions. I like to question the foundation of the opinions expressed and, as often as not, I am pointing out that the person posting did not even consider what they posted and just posted it as true. Does that mean that I do not pursue an agenda with my questions like a law professor using the Socratic method? To say otherwise would be disingenuous. We all have an agenda.
The point of this diatribe is to encourage the reader, and myself, to consider both sides of an argument before you lash out. Understanding why you think something and the argument of the other side does not automatically make your side wrong.
Understanding why people may feel different from you could solidify your opinion and further embolden where you stand. There is nothing wrong with that. Don’t accept or reject arguments just because someone tells you to think that way. Consider both sides and make decisions for yourself. Oh yeah, sometimes, no matter what you think you should keep it to yourself. That is true for everyone, especially those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a criminal defense lawyer and co founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway, and Fayetteville, Arkansas. He may be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com.
