Being the calm, rational person in a fight doesn’t always work, though. It only takes one party to want a fight to have one, after all.
Looks like you’re conflating two things: being a rational person in a fight and being a rational person who want to avoid the fight. I would argue that being a calm and rational person in a fight is usually a good thing. I would also argue that avoiding the fight is not always the right choice. Sometimes a curb-stomping is very much needed.
what is needed is a good dynamic tension between the two sides
We have dynamic tension—it’s tension because things are tense :-) and it’s dynamic because it just moved right in front of our eyes. As to “good”, I don’t know what you mean—by what criteria do you want to decide whether it’s good or not?
strategies for promoting useful discussion
Discussion is all well and good, but it’s rather incomplete without doing. The “chattering class” label is not a compliment.
Looks like you’re conflating two things: being a rational person in a fight and being a rational person who want to avoid the fight. I would argue that being a calm and rational person in a fight is usually a good thing. I would also argue that avoiding the fight is not always the right choice. Sometimes a curb-stomping is very much needed.
We have dynamic tension—it’s tension because things are tense :-) and it’s dynamic because it just moved right in front of our eyes. As to “good”, I don’t know what you mean—by what criteria do you want to decide whether it’s good or not?
Discussion is all well and good, but it’s rather incomplete without doing. The “chattering class” label is not a compliment.