I'm writing this on a friend's laptop back home in Florida. Right now, President Obama is on TV and the Internet addressing questions through a "town-hall" style meeting, answering questions via YouTube submissions as well as a live audience in the same room as him.
It is important to never act as a partisan. Democrat or Republican nor Liberal or Conservative. By nature, I'm not a partisan person, nor do I believe anyone is. By nature, in groups, we can be partisan -- take sides, be reactive, not address complex issues in a thoughtful way, in George Carlin's words "people in groups wear stupid hats." Its easier that way. However, as individuals, we think different.
Much like how someone is born into a certain society or culture, a certain religion, a family of intolerance, environment plays a huge role in what we know, what we don't know, and how we know or don't know. Worse off, one tends to shut out other viewpoints and even worse off, his or hers own logic is censored.
Partisanship isn't disagreeing or arguing, either. In fact, when partisanship gets really bad, rational arguments actually stop happening! Absurdity. And why do these arguments fail? Because the approach for partisans is to win or lose. Many people don't engage in arguments because they don't want this battle.
For truly smart people, the goal is not to win or lose. The goal is to move the conversation forward. The idea is to learn from each other through conversation, through arguing different sides, figuring out what approach or idea makes the most sense based on history and the present circumstances.
Partisanship is like watching a soap opera. It plays on our need for entertainment, negative entertainment. Instead, "pulling" - the process of pooling ideas and going through a process of dissemination as to which one(s) are the best - provides positive entertainment. Positive breeds positive and negative breeds negative.
The way I try to engage politics or any issue is based on the logic of that issue. Nonetheless, I get pulled into petty arguments at times and fall into what I call the "label trap." Once you label something, including "liberal," "conservative," "right," "left," your unconscious and your conscious begin seeing things in that prism. This falls back to yesterday's blog. It's just like any sort of training or muscle memory process. Just like eating or smoking habits, you have to make a conscious effort to change that prism which, unfortunately, is ingrained in many of us from such an early age.
Just because Peyton Manning finds ways to beat my Jacksonville Jaguars and drives me crazy for the long completions he makes doesn't deny the fact that he's a helluva football player. All it says is that the Jags need to get a better defense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks -- This is intolerance of free speech, not to mention the simple fact that the major point of what they said came true. Break through to the merit of the words, not the simple fact that they may not like the guy you like. Break through the black and white and discern as much grey as you can.
Putting aside some manliness for a second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g "Not ready to make nice"- Dixie Chicks
It is important to never act as a partisan. Democrat or Republican nor Liberal or Conservative. By nature, I'm not a partisan person, nor do I believe anyone is. By nature, in groups, we can be partisan -- take sides, be reactive, not address complex issues in a thoughtful way, in George Carlin's words "people in groups wear stupid hats." Its easier that way. However, as individuals, we think different.
Much like how someone is born into a certain society or culture, a certain religion, a family of intolerance, environment plays a huge role in what we know, what we don't know, and how we know or don't know. Worse off, one tends to shut out other viewpoints and even worse off, his or hers own logic is censored.
Partisanship isn't disagreeing or arguing, either. In fact, when partisanship gets really bad, rational arguments actually stop happening! Absurdity. And why do these arguments fail? Because the approach for partisans is to win or lose. Many people don't engage in arguments because they don't want this battle.
For truly smart people, the goal is not to win or lose. The goal is to move the conversation forward. The idea is to learn from each other through conversation, through arguing different sides, figuring out what approach or idea makes the most sense based on history and the present circumstances.
Partisanship is like watching a soap opera. It plays on our need for entertainment, negative entertainment. Instead, "pulling" - the process of pooling ideas and going through a process of dissemination as to which one(s) are the best - provides positive entertainment. Positive breeds positive and negative breeds negative.
The way I try to engage politics or any issue is based on the logic of that issue. Nonetheless, I get pulled into petty arguments at times and fall into what I call the "label trap." Once you label something, including "liberal," "conservative," "right," "left," your unconscious and your conscious begin seeing things in that prism. This falls back to yesterday's blog. It's just like any sort of training or muscle memory process. Just like eating or smoking habits, you have to make a conscious effort to change that prism which, unfortunately, is ingrained in many of us from such an early age.
Just because Peyton Manning finds ways to beat my Jacksonville Jaguars and drives me crazy for the long completions he makes doesn't deny the fact that he's a helluva football player. All it says is that the Jags need to get a better defense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks -- This is intolerance of free speech, not to mention the simple fact that the major point of what they said came true. Break through to the merit of the words, not the simple fact that they may not like the guy you like. Break through the black and white and discern as much grey as you can.
Putting aside some manliness for a second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g "Not ready to make nice"- Dixie Chicks
