Liberals And Conservatives

I must have written those same thoughts a thousand times but every once in a while they get to me in different ways. I'm basically very disappointed in liberals. Why am I not disappointed in conservatives you might ask, it's because their name makes no promises. They are conservative and their thinking is implied to be conservative and somehow that implies limited. I'm disappointed in liberals because of their deceiving name. Liberal unfortunately implies liberal thinking and liberal views. They deliver on some of the views but when it comes to thinking most are limited. The trouble is that a liberal doesn't always have a liberated mind.

There's no big difference between liberals and conservatives in how dogmatic they are. Liberal does not mean open minded although it implies it. Liberal and conservative are adjectives describing views rather than thinking. Unfortunately neither side practically means an open mind capable of thinking matters out fairly.

The vigor with which liberals hold on to their views is appalling and disappointing. If anything they stand for more freedom of expression and more rights, and yet the amount of dogmatic stances that give no other voice a chance are in contradiction of what they stand for. It's far worse to be a liberal with conservative thinking than it is to be a conservative with liberal thinking. The true gauge is how much your mind and your thinking is liberated rather than the views you've concluded.

At first, with the flexibility of thought that comes with a young age, there is room to hear both sides and understand what they're all about and take decisions. The ability to listen is something of value. I never thought I would say this, but I've found a use for ignorance. The real use of ignorance is the ability to listen. Ignorance gives people tolerance. They have to tolerate others because they don't know better.

But why stop at liberals and conservatives, that's just the nature of people. When they're young they're flexible and open for ideas, and as they grow older they grow more and more rigid. They stop believing in change and rightly so, for the inflexibility alone is enough. All there is to be heard has already been heard, so why waste time?

It's hard to express, but what I mean to say is that more ground is covered the older we grow and the more wise we appear in our own eyes. It is never about us not understanding things clearly, it's about us understanding it and rejecting it, no matter what blind spots.

But there's something else to do with ignorance, and not ignorance of facts. I said that ignorance breeds a sort of tolerance and it counts most when you're ignorant of people. When you don't know someone, you don't bother to stop them from whatever crap they're saying, you listen and maybe you justify it by virtue of politeness. When you get to know people better the tolerance ends. You can no longer tolerate certain views or even bear to hear them out as a sort of self expression from the teller; more than that you have the power to disrespect them, interrupt them and shut them down. We're far often more courteous to strangers than we are to close ones. It's as if when we first know people we're like children, and as we know them more we grow older and along with the increase of age a decrease of tolerance.

Views are liberal and conservative but thinking isn't. Thinking might be the ability to throw all you've thought about far behind you and be willing to reconsider things. When you have the patience to reach a conclusion similar to where you're at now, then that's tolerance; if you reach a different conclusion, that's open mindedness.

A little bit of ignorance would help specially with the people you know. A little less taking for granted and allowing them at least the courtesy you allow a stranger. One of the perks of working with mundane computers is that they give some of life's most valuable lessons. No matter how perfectly you think your approach is or how well you've covered all the angles, there's always a new perspective, always a new approach that's, in all likelihood, better. Sometimes you encounter people saying something that seems naive to you, but upon further inspection you realize that they're actually one step ahead of you.

Of course all these computer lessons apply to the computer world where actual thinking occurs, but when it comes to people it might not apply. After all everyone's just voicing out an adopted opinion that can be dogmatic and have no basis of thought, but you just never know when you'll hear a genuinely intelligent comment that might alter your perspective and better your approach.