There Ain’t no Good Guys, There Ain’t no Bad Guys. There’s Only You and Me and We Just Disagree

Art by Alberto Ruggieri

I was going to write this fabulous post about the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy. It would’ve revolutionized blogs as we know it, changed the world with the strike of a key (I hope you know I’m just joking). However, Jonathan Last of the Weekly Standard beat me to the punch, saying all I wanted to say and with far more eloquence than I ever could. As the French say just before surrendering, “Que Sera Sera (I know this isn’t French).  Here is a link to Mr. Last’s article,  A One Man Department of Justice, believe me it is well worth the read, whether you like the Batman films or not

With that said, what do I talk about now? Do not fret dear reader because you are fortunate to be visiting the blog of a woman who is never at a loss for words. Well, I’m probably going to step into it with just my second blog post, but here goes. 

Unless you’ve been held captive in a cave for the last few weeks, there’s been a lot of talk in regards to faith and one’s individual beliefs. Let me just say, if I disagree with you, this doesn’t mean I hate you. I disagree with people about all sorts of things. For instance, I don’t like The Olympics, cake is better than pie, I’m still a fan of Mel Gibson, “The Dark Knight Rises” is better than “The Dark Knight” and here’s the biggie, I don’t like Star Wars –gasp! I know this list doesn’t sit well with some of you, maybe a lot of you, but these disagreements do not mean I hate you. Of course the recent topic that has gotten everyone’s dander up is a bit more serious than what I’ve mentioned above. But I’ve seen some serious arguments between Star Wars and Star Trek fans -don’t ask.

Even if the current cultural disagreement is very personal for you, don’t assume that the person you disagree with dislikes you in anyway. Believe me, it’s personal for them too, and could just be a case where two lovely people are on opposite sides of a very sensitive issue. Personal opinions can often be misconstrued, leading to hurt feelings and unwarranted anger. Somehow we have to learn to talk about delicate matters and allow others to say how they honestly feel without ad-hominem attacks (I like that word ‘ad-hominem’, it’s fun to say). 

There will be other topics that get Facebook and Twitter all up in arms, after all this is a politically charged year. There will be disagreement again, shouts of anger, long drawn out threads on Facebook and dueling Twitter arguments. Let’s pinkie swear right now, while we’re still in a good mood, that we will simply agree to disagree. Then we’ll shake hands and sit down together and eat a chicken sandwich -at KFC of course.

-Alice from the Block