POVs – awaken

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POVs is Swoppt’s lens looking into various perspectives for a series of important themes of our day and age. Same set of questions is asked to a diversity of people coming from every corner of the globe. With these will come different POVs.

No narration, no conclusion. No solution to the pressing issues of today will ever merit being called a real solution until a maximum of voices are heard and accounted for.

Truth: based on experience

This series follows a train of thought of philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin. Living in a world of pluralism, each of us exists with our own ideas of truth based off all that we’ve experienced.  Because of this plurality of pasts, values, beliefs and views, there is no singular supreme truth.

When certain beliefs hit the political stage, that individual human trajectory is blatantly forgotten. Points and beliefs are most often argued via rationality. Sir Isaiah claims rationality simply cannot be used as a tool to convince someone of a different truth. He explicitly aims this point towards politics and hits the nail on the head.

Political views stem from a cultural upbringing, more profoundly from one person’s story. Remembering that someone’s belief comes from their specific past allows a sense of common humanity. Listening to individual’s story prior to arguing one’s own view —a product of one’s own story— allows for an exchange of the most human quality: empathy.

Discussion: a steppingstone for debate

After all, we talk so much. How many times do we consciously enter a conversation with little to no purpose of hearing the other side? Rather than viewing the conversation as a means of exchange, how many times do we use its context as a variable to argue our pre-disposed set of views and opinions?

Nearly every discussion is a steppingstone for debate. Nearly every debate becomes less and less a discussion – cutting off the other speaker rather than listening because listening presumably won’t strengthen the point one’s trying to make.

Point of Views is more than merely expressing a variety of stances on a given issue. It shares stories of how each individual got to his/her point of view: based on where they come from, what they were taught and what they have personally experienced. Just by taking in the author’s truth, the reader participates in the empathy. Where they go from here is another story in the making.

POVs: reflect a more global outlook

For that reason, I use POVs as a means of understanding a far more global outlook on how we go about this conversation, starting from the micro— the roots of our own limited perspectives that precede the debate.

About the Article

Welcome to POV!  Points of View is a Swoppt series focussed on various global reactions to current experiences.

Topics

Marriage

What Sexual Abuse

Beyond 2020

Patriotism

Racism

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