It’s Okay To Disagree
How empathy helped me get over my Shakespeare hatred
“O I have suffered with those that I saw suffer.’
We’re all only trying to be reasonable aren’t we, and yet the whole direction of discourse over the last decade has been steered by half a dozen social media dudes and their platforms towards certainty about our own beliefs and hostility towards anyone who disagrees with us.
In this episode I'm looking at empathy. What is it? Should we have more? Or is there already too much?
Shakespeare was brilliant at showing both sides of every argument, and I am hoping this week to use his skills at this to ensure that we find the right balance. I feel like I learn something new every episode I write of this, and I feel like I've learned a little more about how to appreciate the views of people I disagree with.
Not least with the Bard himself, whose play The Merchant of Venice made my school life a misery.
Plays featured in this episode: Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and yes, The Merchant of Venice, previously known in this household as The Schoolboy Taunting of Cohen.
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