Political queries from an almost-Quaker

November 6, 2018

Tim­o­thy Tay­lor on rad­i­cal objectivity:

But near what feels like an espe­cial­ly divi­sive elec­tion day, it seems worth pos­ing his insights as a chal­lenge for all of our par­ti­san beliefs. While I am not a mem­ber of the Reli­gious Soci­ety of Friends, I attend­ed a col­lege with Quak­er roots and mar­ried a 22nd-generation Quak­er. The Quak­ers have a term called a “query,” which refers to a ques­tion – some­times a chal­leng­ing or point­ed ques­tion– that is meant to be used as a basis for addi­tion­al reflection. 

His list isn’t real­ly in the style of clas­sic Quak­er queries (sur­prise). It’s the mod­ern style of lead­ing ques­tions that get called queries. Too often this form ends up being a rather trans­par­ent attempt to impose a kind of polit­i­cal ortho­doxy but Tay­lor’s ques­tions feel refresh­ing­ly chal­leng­ing and use­ful for what­ev­er side or non-side one takes in pol­i­tics. Hat­tip to Doug Ben­nett for the link.

http://​con​versableecon​o​mist​.blogspot​.com/​2​0​1​8​/​1​1​/​c​l​i​f​f​o​r​d​-​g​e​e​r​t​z​-​a​n​d​-​r​a​d​i​c​a​l​-​o​b​j​e​c​t​i​v​i​t​y​.​h​tml