To answer these questions, I dived into my past. We did not have a debate team in school, but debating and discussion of the issues was a constant in our lives. Our high school teachers forced us to take sides that we did not agree with. They pushed us to understand the other side in order to gain perspective and let's say, for the sake of argument, to be able to overcome those objectives. My small high school is one of the reasons I believe in small classrooms.
Here is another thought from my past, I have role-played. In Acting classes and in Dungeons and Dragons games. Alright the super nerd status is out, but let's set that aside for the moment. Acting allowed me to explore areas my personality had never dared to go before. Dungeons and Dragons allowed me to play a very different character. True Neutral. The true neutral character allows the player to switch sides and be unpredictable, except for the fact that they would take the underdog's side.
I do this on my personal page on Facebook. Why? I like debate and I like to learn things from others. And yesterday, I learned a lot from just two posts. Remember, my friends are from a range of backgrounds and we think nothing alike. I pose questions and make statements. The point is, I am an educator first. I am a firm believer in the types of debates Socrates and Plato used to teach students. And I am thankful for the friends that participated in the discussions because there were a lot of excellent points made. And if you really read through them, we had found a middle ground. Why can't our own representatives do this? Sure, it took hours of hammering out. We still had a dissenting voice. But the majority reached a middle ground. And we agreed on several things, the media is full of dogs digging numbers for bones and civil unions should be recognized. Marriages, or the standard religious view, should be left to one's own church. Keeping religion and politics separate, as the Constitution was meant to do.
The key is, how will the observing audience take to these debates?
- Positively. Why do I say this? There was no name-calling, no finger pointing. It was civil. It was, a discussion.
- Your viewpoints should reflect your business. And clearly, I am still True Neutral. I am the standard moderate. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal. Isn't this what you would want from an education based business? I believe so.
- Compartmentalize personal thoughts from your business thoughts. Hrm, why separate them? Because you do not want bad feelings with clients that do not agree with your politics. When you are acting on behalf of your business, it is best to stay in your zone of expertise and push politics aside.
I have had to hide people's feed on my Facebook account because of their personal beliefs. I have never had to hide a business. I hope it stays that way. I have had to go so far as to "un-friend" someone because their viewpoints were so radical and it was difficult for me to not fire one back! But think about this, most of us have more friends on Facebook than we have followers of our business page. So if I feel compelled to hide your personal feed, your voice begins to shrink. And we want our voices heard, don't we?