Intellectual Cocooning

Tigerhawk posted this comment in relation to the Chapter 11 filing of Air America and how their failure was a direct result of being unable to take listeners from NPR (emphasis is mine):

"The left has a tough time of it in the United States, I think, because it is in the minority but does not understand that it is. It dominates universities and the national news and entertainment media. As a result, liberal intellectuals who develop new ideas do not have to test their arguments to the same degree as conservatives because they are much more likely than conservative intellectuals to be surrounded by people who agree with them as a matter of course. Conservative "institutions" were built because by the 1970s conservatives felt that they were frozen out of the national conversation. Liberals should not, as Ezra says, mimic the Heritage Foundation or Rush Limbaugh. Instead, liberals should go out of their way to understand their opponent. They should engage, argue and even hang out with conservatives, and listen to the smart arguments that will be raised against their best new ideas. Only then will they understand how to refine their own arguments into a winning message."

Intellectual cocooning should be avoided at all costs. It is often shrill and venomous debate that causes listening to stop.