Do not try to call me a conservative or a liberal. My opinions and beliefs on specific issues are driven by thought and argument, not because of someone else’s agenda. On some issues, I hold a more politically conservative opinion (I am pro-life and pro-small government), but on other issues I would be called a political liberal (I am pro-gun control and against the death penalty). I am fully willing to argue my belief on any one of these issues independently. But I won’t defend any of them against a charge of being “conservative” or “liberal.” The labeling is meaningless outside of a discussion of the issue itself. I have voted for both Democrat and Republican candidates based on the issues that I feel are important at the time and the candidate’s stance on those issues. Voting this way requires a lot more effort than simply choosing the “D” or “R” box on the first page, but it more accurately reflects how I feel about the officials that represent me.
I even flinch from being called a Baptist. I proudly attend a Southern Baptist church for two reasons:
- I was raised in a Southern Baptist church and feel more comfortable in the structure and traditions of that denomination.
- In general, the doctrine of the Southern Baptist denomination holds fairly closely with my own beliefs.
However, I would hope that someone wouldn’t merely look up “Southern Baptists” on Wikipedia and assume they understand what I believe about any given issue. There are, in fact, practices with which I do not agree, but I stand firm with the fellowship of believers to which I am bound. I attend a Baptist church, but do not assume you understand everything about me because of that.
Despite our need and desire to categorize the world around us, there are rarely such simple black-and-white differentiations. We should challenge ourselves to understand issues and the subtleties and complexities of people’s opinions, rather than be lazy and rely on simple labels to define how we respond to those around us.
5 comments:
Excellent post Clint. I wish far more people would think critically issue by issue rather than following a party line. Most of the issues of today are far more complex than the sound bites and talking point the media and politicians like to boil them down to. The internet makes this both easier and more difficult. The information is out there, but it can be difficult to find and evaluate at times.
But I can still label you a geek, right?
Death penalty gets a bad rap b/c of its name. It should be called death service. A service which I'll gladly provide if you try to take my guns away from me. :)
I have a few labels for Clint when he lets the sim run long.....
(Other wise an excellent post) ;)
Labels are dangerous, but we really can't function efficiently without them. They're a critical factor that enable us to manage the complexity of the world with the limited compute power at our disposal. You simply can't identify, evaluate, and respond to all of the information coming at you in real time. You're forced to identify, evaluate and respond to patterns in the data stream.
The patterning generally happens at a sub-conscious level. The dangerous part is when we forget that the patterning is happening and start behaving like the patterns (labels) are what's real. It takes special effort to look at and process the data beneath the pattern, and it's not normally worth the effort.
But sometimes it is.
(BTW, I label you "normal" with some endearingly geekish tendencies.)
Post a Comment