Though I will unfortunately be unable to attend, I am excited to hear that the Parkland Institute's 2008 Fall Conference will be focusing on the the role of art, culture and media in political discourse while the conference discussions will focus around two main questions: “Why do we talk about what we talk about?” and “How can ideas with social justice values become the dominant discourse?”
The conference will take place from November 14-16 on the University of Alberta campus and speakers will include Tariq Ali, Megan Boler, and Nora Young, among others.
Registration and tickets are still available.
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Tariq Ali's stop in Calgary last night should be available via the Knox United Church podcast on iTunes in the near future.
ReplyDelete"Why is it that people often vote against their best interests?"
ReplyDeleteThis is such a disturbing attitude.
There's only one person with a right to decide what "best interests" are for them...and that's the voter!
This attitude and what it entails is a major reason I inhabit the right side of the political spectrum.
It is also why, though I would certainly indicate who I support, why I support them, or why I would vote for someone if I could; I won't tell people I know who they must vote for, who it would be "good" for them to vote for (versus bad of course, claiming some sort of moral obligation), or condemn people for voting a certain way. I might not like that they do but I have no right to tell them they were wrong. They cannot be wrong as this is not an applicable question in a democracy. Opinions should be respected; and so should the right of everyone to hold an opinion.
Hey TJK,
ReplyDeleteI attended the conference this weekend and that was frankly one of the most interesting talks of the conference.
The write-up for the talk was a bit misleading. The speaker asked that question at the beginning, talked about framing, metaphors what constitutes peoples best interest - had the audience eating out of his hand and then he answered the question... "they don't vote against their best interests," they simply frame their best interests differently.
It seems obvious, doesn't it? But he took a huge room full of people from agreeing with that question to looking inward at their own biases.