Pick a side. Start a war. ~Reggie Watts
Hunter Powers: This is Hunter Powers broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., and you are listening to the ONE, one idea that we will explore for the day to see where it takes us.
Hunter Powers: Today's idea is pick a side, start a war, and I don't know who said it. I saw this on a t-shirt that Reggie Watts was wearing. If you don't know Reggie, he's a comedian, a bit of a musician, a bit of a philosopher. He's done a TED talk. He's an interesting guy. I don't think this is his saying though, but he did wear the t-shirt, so I'm giving him the credit.
Hunter Powers: But now for the quote, "Pick a side, start a war." What does that mean? Does it mean we should be having a whole lot of wars? Probably not, but maybe. I think what this is getting at is that for a lot of things, both sides can probably be argued equally well, not for everything. There's some edge case. Figure out the edge case that would really infuriate you if I said both sides could be argued equally well, and let's just assume that for that edge case, they couldn't, but for everything else, both sides could be argued equally well.
Hunter Powers: There's a technique. It's a debate technique. When you're going to debate someone for something or you're going to have an argument or you're just going to try to persuade someone to your point of view that the first thing you should be able to do is argue their point better than them. Understand their angle. Understand how you would convince any average person on the street to identify with them, and if you can't do that, then you really can't expect to win. But once you understand that, once you understand the logical progression of their idea, you can then counter it. Before that, it's really just one opinion versus another, but once you completely understand their logic and respect their logic, you can then give them more logic that breaks their logic, but you can't break it first if you don't understand it.
Hunter Powers: If we take this presupposition that both sides can be argued equally well on most things, except for that one thing that if this was true would be so very insulting and demoralizing that this can't be true, that thing, nope. Both sides cannot be argued equally well, but everything else, yes. So once we agree that both sides can be argued equally well, well, then whatever side you come down on, to quote Lebowski, "That's just like your opinion, man," and so you should have an opinion and you should start a war. I think that start a war really means to have an opinion, to have a point of view, right? Don't just accept whoever seems to have the stronger argument, because that probably just means they're a little bit better at having a stronger argument, and if you really thought about it deeply enough, you could probably bolster the other side to have a stronger argument.
Hunter Powers: So what it comes down to is your opinion. Where do you side? Once you pick that side, once it becomes part of your identity, you start a war, because that's how the argument or the position is won. Or maybe you don't care and you walk away, but if you want it, you understand both sides equally well, you pick the side you want to be on because that's the side that aligns with your identity, and then you make it a crucial part of your identity. You start a war and you win, and perhaps to some degree you win just through that action, right? That side, that opinion now has you, and before it didn't.
Hunter Powers: I think the idea, there's also a freedom in it, right? Figure out how you think about the subject, how you identify with it, how you want society to work in relationship to it, and then just go ahead and own it. You don't really need to worry about the other part as long as you truly understand it because it has become part of your identity, like it or not, but it really is the only way.
Hunter Powers: All right. That's going to be it for today. Decide whether you liked this episode, and then start a war, and we'll see how that goes. I don't know. Maybe I'm going to reserve my judgment on this episode as well because I certainly need to be able to argue both sides, and now my head's running with all the sides for absolutely not. But don't forget that I did say whatever that one thing that you know would just be so wildly insulting if both sides were argued equally well, it doesn't apply to that. This only applies to everything else.
Hunter Powers: All right. Until next time, this is Hunter Powers from Washington D.C., and you've been listening to the ONE.