Compromise

by Tony Lawrence

11/4/07 -- This casino fight is a good example of conflicting social mores.

One the one hand we have those who don't like gambling because of their belief that any activity harmful to society should be banned, and on the other we have those who are willing to accept harm to some elements of society if most others find the activity useful (enjoyable in the case of gambling) and harmless. We can draw parallels to abortion/anti abortion arguments, liquor licenses, adult entertainment and so on, and often the "home rule" solution is pushed forward: let local citizens decide what is best for their community.

That's a popular solution. It recognizes that the cultural values of a large city are different from those of a rural community, and lets that rural community set its own rules: "community standards" is the phrase used to describe this.

I think that community standards just guarantee isolationism and will eventually lead to conflict. In other words, I do NOT think that local communities should decide what mores will be enforced in their jurisdiction. Why? Stop for a moment and think about why concentrated population areas have what the more conservative rural areas would call "loose" morals? Why is that so often the case, why do the highly populated East and West coasts tend toward liberal views while the less populated regions are more conservative?

You can make some argument that education has something to do with it, and perhaps it does. But the biggest reason that high population areas are liberal in their morals is because of the large numbers of people who have to get along with each other. People make concessions to other people's desires. Sometimes the concessions may be given a little begrudgingly, but more often they come from living with diversity and realizing that society did not collapse because of those with different cultural values from ours. Tolerance may have begun out of necessity, but it often ends up that there really was nothing to worry about at all. Clothing customs that might still cause shock in rural areas become acceptable, even hum-drum. Alcohol served in restaurants turns out to be a pleasant addition to a meal and so on. Being exposed to diversity helps us learn tolerance.

I believe that we need to embrace tolerance. We all need to understand that different cultures will see certain activities differently than we do. The Muslim custom of covering women's faces is no different than our culture's demands to cover breasts and genitals - and in fact comes from the same fears. If we are ever going to have world peace, the Muslim needs to tolerate the nudist and vice versa. We as a nation and as a world need to try to move beyond this idea that our culture is the "right" culture. We need to be more concerned with individual rights and less driven by the majority's prejudice.

Impossible? Sure, right now it absolutely is. But we can move toward a goal even if we can't honestly imagine ever getting there, and every step we take will improve us.

So what does this have to do with the casino?

Again, tolerance. Recognition of the other sides point of view, and genuine effort toward compromise. Certainly that may seem impossible at times. For some on the anti-casino side, there is no compromise: gambling is evil, it must not be allowed and that's all that there is to that. We can't compromise with people who take that position.

But not all anti's are so inflexible. Many may feel that the world would be a better place without casinos, but they also have a good view of reality and understand that there are large numbers of people who enjoy social gambling harmlessly. We can talk productively with those antis.

Talk about what? Talk about the things that upset them, their fears of gambling addiction, traffic, and so on. For every negative impact, recognize that there are remedial measures. Some will have their own impact on the "harmless enjoyment" crowd, but perhaps we are willing to accept some of that in the interests of greater overall happiness.

In a better world, we never would have voted "Yes" or "No" on the casino issue. The "Yes" would have been automatic, but there would have been immediate work toward mitigation and amelioration. All objections would have been considered seriously, and the process would never end - that is, you'd never have "we agreed to provide band-aids and if you are now pulsing blood from an arterial wound, well, you'll just have to make do". The process of listening to minority concerns woould be automatic, normal, and on-going. We are a long, long way from such a world, but that doesn't mean we can't move toward it. We can at least start trying to embrace tolerance, at least make a token effort toward trying to see the other person's point of view.

In a phrase, "Can't we all just get along?". Does it always have to be all or nothing? Why not at least try to approach this and all social arguments in a spirit of compromise?

Idealism? No, we all know that we'll never attain that goal perfectly. There always will be selfish and self centered people and there always will be situations where there are irreconcilable differences between two or more groups: abortion is obviously one, and gambling might be another. But that doesn't mean that we can't work toward a goal, that we can't try to teach our children that the majority should have no right to bully, that minority opinions deserve not just respect but demand a genuine effort to be honored and allowed. We will never be perfect, we may never even come close to a utopian ideal, but that shouldn't discourage us from seeing the goal as desirable. We can work toward a goal while still understanding that we can never reach it absolutely.

Even on difficult issues like this, we can TRY for compromise. We may expect that the strong anti-casino core will turn a blind eye, but that doesn't mean that all anti's are so unreasonable. If we don't try, if we don't reach out to them for the sake of the greater good, then we are as guilty as the unbudging core is.

* Tony is a regular contributor to OakPointCommunity.org .