James S. Fishkin is only well known in certain circles, but his work with deliberative democracy is something many of us ought to familiarize ourselves with simply because it is something we very much need in our polarized society. It may not be the answer, but it holds a hope to bring our various factions closer. Essentially it involves talking to each other. It means not getting information from social media, but from people, it means not holding on to opinions that stem from the bubbles of social media platforms but discussing them in person.
Such an experiment was conducted in the summer in Philadelphia where a group of people over a 4-day period attended sessions, were presented with information and discussed issues together. At the end, many had changed their minds, a lot more than had been thought. People may be staunch in their views and yet those views are not as fixed as many think, they can be moved. The experiment in Philadelphia as other such experiments in other cities show that what people think when exposed to information they can discuss in person with others can and do shift.
James S. Fishkin, among other titles is the director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University. Yes, he does represent the often-crucial work universities are involved in, but what is also relevant to us at this time in our history is that what he does, and others do with him, points to one of the tools needed to help us overcome the current impasse US democracy finds itself in.
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