Philosophy Now Forum

this question poses some preliminary examination...

the word in question is mediation.. and what exactly does this mean?

Mediate: intervene between people in a dispute in order to bring about
an agreement or reconciliation... to intervene in a dispute to bring about
agreement...to form a connecting link between: example... structures that
mediate gender divisions...

as an adjective: connect indirectly through another person or thing..
involving an intermediate agency...

so in a real sense, to mediate is to resolve conflicts.. and we can use this word
to understand our modern world... I have an inner conflict between
my values and what I see within the world.. I hold to values like peace,
love, hope, charity.. and the world uses values like hate, violence,
bigotry and anger....so how do I mediate between my values and what I see
the world doing? this example gives us some understanding of the act
of mediation...mediation stands in the middle of something....

and what possibilities exists in mediating something? in other words,
if I am in conflict between two possibilities, how do I mediate between
them? let us take some current means of mediating between conflicts...

so, we have seen in our current society what kinds of mediation has occurred...
an example is the MAGA type who says any, ANY information or facts that
dispute their own understanding of reality is ''fake news'' or disinformation
that has no value... the only information or facts that are acceptable are
facts or information that confirms their already held beliefs...

This denial of reality or truth, is quite common these days...if the
information doesn't match the already accepted version of the truth,
it is denied or deemed to be "fake news".....but this denial of truth
isn't just about MAGA types, it is common in the religious...

to believe in god is to hold to the "faith" regardless of any evidence
or facts that might be presented in this story... and this religious
tendency holds true for many who cannot stand in the middle
between two truths or within any conflict between truths...
they must stand on one side of reality regardless of the evidence
that might be presented opposing their own viewpoint....

in what I am saying, by taking the long road, is that
we in the modern age, don't often mediate, stand between
two opposing viewpoints and work out which is best...
we no longer mediate between two opposing viewpoint..
we make a decision and leave it at that.. regardless if that
decision is right or wrong.. we no longer stand in the middle
and weigh our evidence, seek out the facts in the case,
mediate between two opposing viewpoints...there is a black
and white understanding of the universe.. and the universe is not
black and white, it is shades of gray.. the universe stands in the middle
it is us that can swing from one side to another...the universe stands
in the middle, in neutral... it has no agenda to achieve or views its
trying to force on people.. the universe just doesn't give a shit..
and we try to make the universe into some arbiter of fate or an answer
to the meaning to life... ying and yang isn't some statement about the
universe, it is a statement about the human condition, nothing more...

the universe cannot mediate between us and something else..
for the act of mediation can only come from human beings..
and nothing else...

Kropotkin

so the question arises, how do we mediate between two
opposing ideas or events? An example of this is the two conflicting
ideas about the 2020 election...

The MAGA crowd holds that the 2020 elections was "stolen" the most
corrupt election in American history.. (and this shows us the ignorance
of the MAGA crowd... given the very corrupt nature of elections over
American history starting with the election of 1800)

or we have a alternative vision of the 2020 election.. which it is
the cleanest, fairest election in American history.. between these two
opposing viewpoints, how are we to mediate between them?

the historical evidence shows us that as a culture, people, we
are less violent, we are slowly, (and I emphasize that word slowly)
that we are becoming a fairer, less violent and more just people, society...

the injustices that were once a given, are now being attacked and displaced..
we have removed slavery, and the making of women as property,
and we have improved the legal, political and social status of blacks,
gays, trans, women, people of color... within the "woke" society comes
a recognition that we cannot conduct business as usual.. we cannot condone
injustice and violence and hatred and bigotry and intolerance...
business as usual, no longer works for us....

and within this new understanding comes the notion that to hold to
the ideal of a democracy, we must have fair and free elections..
the way I use to mediate the two given possibilities, between the 2020
election being fair or being "stolen" is by my experience..
I just missed being able to vote in 1976 by a couple of months......
I have seen many elections, both local and national over my lifetime,
I am pretty sure that Gore won the 2000 election but it was taken
away by the supreme court by one of the worst SCOTUS decisions in
American history... but I didn't whine or try to overturn the election...
anyway, I have personally seen some pretty dubious elections,
I lived near Chicago in 1968 and my father was a newspaper man
and I got stories from him...

so my experience in multiple elections, allows me to see that this last
election was one of the cleaner ones in American history... why would
you think that Kropotkin? Because of the scrutiny given to this last election..
the greater the scrutiny given to anything, the more likely it is going to be
fair... with 2 eyes, mischief and mayhem can happen.... with thousands of
eyes, it is far less likely.. and this last election was the most scrutinized
election in American history... that gives me the knowledge to know that
this last election was a pretty fair one...

so, we can mediate between two opposing theories by using experience to
make judgements about the two opposing theories.... as I have done in
in thinking about the last election....

Kropotkin