The hot response culture (why reason and compassion should prevail)

My point is not that social media are the root of all evil. Far from it - these platforms have provided great benefit, in particular affording us the opportunity to pursue collaborative innovation. If we are now closer to solving pressing global problems than we were a decade ago, it is partly because of social networking. The internet is connecting researchers charged with finding a COVID-19 vaccine.

My point is that we gain nothing and lose a great deal when we congregate too quickly behind barricades; when we shout before we speak and fail to think before we do either.

Granted, the Covid-19 lockdown was traumatic for many people and the unfolding pre-vaccine transition period carries its own anxieties. Some people find it cathartic to gather in protest given the privations of the past four months.

However, in the realm of worldviews and ideologies, we should not replace conciliation with a desire for outright conquest. Whether they adhere to our way of thinking or not, other people are more than the sum total of their ideas. Human beings are often far more nuanced in their thinking than forums like social media will reflect.

Issues involving race and gender are hugely important. Much will flow from how we resolve the questions locked within them. It is because they are so weighty that we should resist the temptation to take the easy route, resorting only to either "cancel culture" or outright, instant vilification.

If we believe that someone else's ideas need to change, we must acknowledge that this won't happen without an act of will on their part. We encourage this through engaging, explaining and attempting to persuade, with a mixture of empathy, reason, conviction and compassion.

Revolutions, it is said, eat their own young. Leaders or would-be leaders of highly flammable rebellions often later find themselves rebelled against. They are burned by the very fire they set alight.

Why is this? Because shouting loudly, or issuing threats, provides catharsis only for the shouters. With even the most righteous of causes, such as the struggle against racism and the need to seek a common understanding on gender, being loud on its own does nothing to convince others that ideas have merit in themselves.

Heat, however vociferous, eventually dies down. Only ideas born from and carried forward with the light of reason, passion and compassion will survive.