Virtù e vizi della mediazione tra dialogo e polemos / Dialogue and polemic: Virtues and flaws of mediation

Abstract

Normally one tends to believe that mutual concessions and compromise in a civil society are not only inevitable, but also beneficial, and consequently one tends to discourage the conflict and to seek mediation. Mediation, agreement, consensus, and unanimity are good and just ideals only where they represent a genuine coming together of divergent viewpoints, a culmination of a discussion in which divergent thoughts were neither hidden nor censored. Therefore, in case of dispute and of conflict, you may seek mediation and compromise, a solution typical of the political disputes; or, you may be radical and intransigent, a typical choice in cultural disputes. The advocates of cooperative dialogue are right from the point of view of civil society, and the advocates of polemical confrontation are right from the cognitive and cultural point of view. There are therefore situations where mediation is not necessarily desirable or not surely propitious. It is good to use the force of mediation, but not to be forced to mediate.