Talking to strangers

Abstract

The language used by politicians and its social effects have been of long-standing interest to social anthropology. Opinion-formers on both sides of the North Atlantic have recently argued that this language can inflame tensions and reinforce divisions. In the UK, the discussion has centred on relations between a white majority and a Muslim minority, while in the US, in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of a Democratic Congresswoman in Arizona, it has focused on the risk of political language provoking violence. The antidote to inflammatory language is often assumed to be moderation, defined as a (self-) disciplined engagement with divided publics. Drawing on the insights of Danielle Allen's Talking to strangers, here I suggest that moderation might be re-imagined, not as a vague commitment to centrism and the 'middle ground', but as a powerful resource for citizens and communities to challenge the ideological excesses of politics, religion and the market in the twenty-first century. © RAI 2011.