“I’ll ride the Obama-train!” Said the woman.
I suppose that this should be followed with some kind of factoid: she has one of the most conservative voices that I have ever heard.
How do you reconcile these two things? I would say hypocrisy, but that isn’t exactly it. This is like protesting outside of a bank that took TARP money, but not being able to go to all the rallies because of the fact that you bank with one of the branches being protested. It’s not hypocrisy, but more of a failure to see the value in something.
**Side note: Now, I understand protesting to change the system, but doesn’t it seem like part of that protest should be abstaining from giving business to someone (or using the service) that you find so wrong; This is especially true if your argument is that the effect of said product, service, or company is stifling freedoms and/or treading on the individual?
Value. How can you see the value in something without ever experiencing the conditions to need it? That is a very hard thing. When you always have had a job, it’s easy to judge government unemployment insurance or welfare. When you’ve never hit your lifetime cap of $2,000,000 for health insurance and had them stop paying your claims, it’s hard to see the need for healthcare reform. Experience is a very powerful thing. You can even hear this sentiment in our cliches. Every heard that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes? Experience.
Now you can’t give every experience to everyone. There is no way. I think that one of the most undervalued things in our society can help to give a taste of this experience to everyone: the liberal arts. I gained a lot of compassion and understanding, and ultimately became a compassionate “bleeding heart” (if you will) through the liberal arts. Books, poetry and art give a window to the world. If you take them seriously, and really read a book, or study art and poetry without bias, you can step through the paper and experience something.
Try it. Go experience a thrill, or a different culture, or the life of a person who is not as well off as you. Try and understand them, and their situation as if they are real. Try and feel the passion behind the a piece of art, and understand the artist’s motivation. If you can do this, maybe you can get a feeling for the other side of an argument, and, at the very least, understand how it could have value.
I would end it there, but I can’t. I feel like I have to meet an anticipated argument before it begins. I know that the examples that I have used are liberally biased. I understand that I have this bias. I also understand the highly educated people, and liberal arts majors, have a stigma for being ultra liberal. I am not advocating a liberal agenda here, I am advocating understanding.
Wow! I agree.