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Thoughts from the Edge

2015-01-30 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Personal life, Science & nature, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook

Hank uses the ecology of ecotones, where biomes blend, to argue that the boundary between political ideologies is productive only as a gradient, and that ideological diversity marks a thoughtful, not divided, nation.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Boundaries on Hank's mind; the Obama interview and the nasty comments that followed

  • ★★ Hank says interviewing President Obama is something he could never regret, but being thrown into the public eye brought some people saying nasty things about him, which he is not used to. — 00:00:11 · Barack Obama

00:00:25 — Ecology of the edge: ecotones, predators and prey, the land-sea edge, the edge effect beyond ecology

  • ★ Hank says his graduate degree is in environmental science, so he often sees his experiences through the lens of ecology. — 00:00:25
  • ★★ Hank explains that an ecotone is the area where two biomes blend, and that ecotones tend to be more diverse and biologically productive than either biome alone. — 00:00:35
  • ★★ Hank says many species specialize in living on the edge, which is also violent: predators get more prey, prey face more predators, and that tension drives productivity and diversity. — 00:00:43
  • ★★ Hank says the land-sea edge, biologically productive, has also produced great cultural and economic productivity, so the edge effect seems to exist outside ecology too. (hedged) — 00:01:05

00:01:22 — Personal edges (parenthood, adulthood) and boundaries between cultures

  • ★★ Hank says personal edges, like becoming a parent or growing from child to adult, are difficult but full of valuable growth, and boundaries between cultures are similarly productive. — 00:01:22

00:01:45 — The boundary between ideologies: gradient vs harsh edge, ideological monocultures, celebrating ideological diversity for democracy

  • ★★★ Hank says that in the last week he has tried to see the US political debate as a tumultuous but productive boundary between ideologies, and occasionally it is. — 00:01:45
  • ★★★ Hank argues the benefits of a boundary come from a gradient, not a harsh edge: where ocean meets a wall the ecosystem is no more productive; the best ecotones stretch over miles. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Hank says that instead of reaping the benefits of a gradient between ideologies, he sees people intentionally poisoning it to protect their perceived righteousness. — 00:02:17
  • ★★ Hank says the end result is what ecologists call a monoculture: one plant as far as the eye can see, possibly productive but extremely unstable, crashable by any outside influence. (hedged) — 00:02:25
  • ★★★ Hank does not want to live in ideological monocultures and does not think he does; pretending that we do serves a few people who happen to have a lot of power. (hedged) — 00:02:42

  • ★★★ Hank proposes celebrating rather than dismantling the boundary between ideologies: ideological diversity is the sign of a thoughtful nation, not a divided one. — 00:02:52

    “Ideological diversity is not a sign of a divided nation, it’s a sign of a thoughtful nation.”

  • ★★ Hank says the best way he has found to believe this is simply to stop listening to the people telling us to hate each other. — 00:03:02

  • ★★ Hank tells viewers they will never always be right; everyone is stronger if viewpoints mix, and he thinks that mixing, the edge's ecological success, matters to democracy too. (hedged) — 00:03:09
  • ★★ Hank grants one side will feel safer and make more sense, but says reaching our full potential requires merging the divide into a biome of its own, more fertile and diverse. — 00:03:28

00:03:42 — Sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says the video is composed of clips viewers sent in when he asked them whether they could film the ocean for him. — video description
  • ★★ In the description Hank asks viewers, if the video resonated with them, to consider sharing it on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter or however they share things. — video description
  • ★★ Under 'some other thoughts' Hank points to his essay 'Holy Shit, I Interviewed the President', an exploration of the news media's self-destruction, a PBS NewsHour Twitter chat on the news media, PBS Idea Channel on objectivity, and the BBC's 'News vs. Noise'. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: ecotone · edge effect · ideology · monoculture · political polarization

Also: Barack Obama · democracy · ecology · YouTube Asks Obama

Only in the description or credits: BBC · Holy Shit, I Interviewed the President · PBS Idea Channel · PBS NewsHour

Also centred on ideology: The Amazon isn't "Burning" - It's Being Burned

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