Fun with Extreme Politics
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The election is coming up quick! I’m sure you have a candidate you’re siding with. I am. But does that mean that we can’t at least try to understand the other side? What do you think? Can we get along or are we destined to duke it out?
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The Left, the Right, and the Ugly
I’m sure you have a political bent, left or right. If we were to look at a bell curve, the majority of us would be in the hump in the middle; the moderates on either the left or right. In fact, for many of us, we meander back and forth without even realizing it! Yes, you too could have both left and right sides, as crazy as that sounds.
How does this happen? Well, we all live in the same country, and for the most part, we are all more similar than different. The more pronounced differences are towards the ends of the spectrum on both sides - those “far left” and “far right” folks. Sadly, too many fall into the trap of claiming our side is level-headed, stable, and represents the general public while the other side has become a band of extreme lunatics set to stuff our country down into a garbage disposal.
Love Your Enemy… Love Your Neighbor
Full disclosure: I am Christian and conservative. That said, I’m not so right-leaning that I am blind to the objectives and viewpoints of those who are left-leaning, or even the extreme left. I listened to Jonathan Haidt’s amazing book “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” and it opened my eyes to many of my flaws. I highly recommend it.
Recently, I saw a friend’s Facebook post with a picture of his Democratic political sign in front of his house with a sign for the Republican candidate a couple of yards down. (I’ll leave out the names so that this post is evergreen.) He noted the two and stated that he was fine with his neighbor’s sign, and that it’s OK for us to have differing opinions and to express them. I thought that was mature of him. Whether our candidate wins or loses the election, we remain neighbors.
Moderates Gone Wild
Let’s not fool ourselves, each of us has at least one or two extreme views whether we admit it or not. These fringe beliefs are the root of the divide which may lead to the disdain of the other side. When we start to disdain the other side, we distrust them. It can lead to a certain blindness to the perspective of others; we automatically assume they have evil intent. It’s then that we lose our connection and, in some cases, we can lose our grip on reality. I’ve been there myself.
What’s the solution? No one has a magic button to push and make everything and everyone harmonious. That said, the solution is within each of us. We can choose to be more understanding and empathetic while not compromising our own deeply held beliefs. There’s a quote loosely attributed to Aristotle:
“It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Whether he said that verbatim or not, it’s still a wise thought… if we so choose to entertain it.
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Until next time, stay oddly beautiful!
Jason