"For too many of us, it’s become easier to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or on college campuses, or places of worship, or especially our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions … And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there."
"But politics is a battle of ideas. That’s how our democracy was designed. In the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter then we’re going to keep talking past each other, and make common ground and compromise impossible."
[See “President Obama’s Farewell Address: January 10, 2017,” the Obama White House and the National Archives and Records Administration, accessed November 15, 2017, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/farewell.]
These thoughts need to be taken seriously. Indeed, farewell addresses provide their authors – freed from reelection concerns, and tempered by years of experience in the halls of power – with an opportunity to articulate the “tension among past, present, and future” that shapes a democracy, to an extent that few other forms of political communication allow. [See “Introduction” in Gleaves Whitney, ed. American Presidents: Farewell Messages to the Nation, 1796-2001 (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2003), 1-12.] Additionally, President Obama was far from the first public figure to express concern about this troubling epistemic phenomenon. How, then, should historians respond to such a warning?
This poster will contribute to the conference theme – “Loyalties” – by exploring the scholarly foundations and ongoing accomplishments of the Common Ground Initiative, a long-term public programming series launched in 2013 with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Deeply informed by intellectual history, and committed to the best practices of thoughtful inquiry and principled pluralism, the Common Ground Initiative strives to cultivate an open, honest, and rigorous forum for leading scholars, writers, and public officials to discuss the cultural and political challenges that Americans face in the twenty-first century.
Based at a public university with a proud tradition of expanding access to liberal education, the Common Ground Initiative utilizes free public programs – including lectures, conversations, debates, panels, conferences, and an annual Conservative/Progressive Summit – to instill in students and community members a lasting curiosity about the variety of intellectual and political traditions that shape American public life, past and present.