I'm back. Took awhile with the traveling.
Are you a conservative or liberal? Do you think you fall somewhere in the middle? So do I, and about 99% of others reading this blog. After much thought on this subject I decided to blog on the issue. I am using the terms somewhat loosely (conservative/liberal). I mean them in the political and religious sense.
If most of you are like me you tend to view people that are more conservative than you as “not open-minded”. These people are just not educated enough to see things the way you do. These people are just not able to see what is true and important and usually stick to just a few issues that we would consider to be minor problems while missing the big picture.
The other type of people are those that are too liberal. These people are viewed as people that do not have a sound foundation of beliefs as far as the more conservatives would believe. Many of them ignore issues that we would find to be of extreme importance and they do not stand for what they do, or should, believe to be true. These do not want to levy their beliefs on others because they must not truly believe.
I compare this scenario to when I am driving. Those that are going slower than me are “old foggies” that are making it unsafe by how they are driving, while those that are passing me are “out-of-control” and do not understand how dangerous they are driving. While of course I am driving (at whatever speed I decide for the day) at the optimal speed that others should be driving at.
Personally I tend to lean more to the conservative side on most issues. However I find myself critiquing those that are more conservative that I am as people that cannot find the forest for the trees. While the many that are more liberal than me do not have a firm grasp on reality or they will not stand for what they believe in.
What I have learned in my interactions with many that see things differently than I do is that other people study as much, and often more, than I do. These people have put much thought into what they believe and although I do not always agree with them that does not make them wrong.
What do you think?
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3 comments:
Terms like "conservative" and "liberal" are all relative. We only use them to describe people who are different than we are.
Jon: I agree. Also we'll bash those that are more conservative by saying they have not "lived through" enough "real" situations.
Jason: That was what I was trying to get at. What I view as conservative is probably alot different than what you think of it.
I think we probably have a great deal of difficulty understanding the other side of the aisle. To that end, we use "liberal" or "conservative" to describe them.
But I think these terms also cause a lot of harm. Especially in the religious realm. We use them to label people who are different, which is unfortunate.
But I think you and I probably more alike in some of our views than you think. Except for the whole Christian nation / free nation conversation!
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