Philosophy
If you've kept up at all with the various cultural wars in this country, you're painfully aware of the various stereotypes that liberals and conservatives hold with regard to each other: conservatives are gun-totin' Jesus/Ronald Regan-worshipping, science-denying Chick-fil-A-loving racist, homophobic, chauvinist rednecks; and liberals are bleeding-heart politically-correct latte-sipping tree-hugging taxing-and-spending, welfare-promoting Prius-driving hippies... or something along those lines.
Each ideology makes sense to its adherents because they share certain assumptions, values, attitudes, beliefs and worldviews that help to structure and organize their understanding of various issues in a coherent manner. The same is true of detractors, except that they share a different set of those conditions, which seem unintelligible to the first group.
Of course, we could continue to insult each other and show our sense of moral superiority and dominance till we're blue in the face, but if what we care about is bridging the divide and finding common ground so we could solve the various problems that afflict society and the world, then one of the best ways to do so, or so argues Jonathan Haidt in the following fascinating TEDTalk, is to begin to understand the moral dimensions on which each of these two major political ideologies is predicated.
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Philosophy
Jonathan Haidt - The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives
Each ideology makes sense to its adherents because they share certain assumptions, values, attitudes, beliefs and worldviews that help to structure and organize their understanding of various issues in a coherent manner. The same is true of detractors, except that they share a different set of those conditions, which seem unintelligible to the first group.
Of course, we could continue to insult each other and show our sense of moral superiority and dominance till we're blue in the face, but if what we care about is bridging the divide and finding common ground so we could solve the various problems that afflict society and the world, then one of the best ways to do so, or so argues Jonathan Haidt in the following fascinating TEDTalk, is to begin to understand the moral dimensions on which each of these two major political ideologies is predicated.
- Mitt Romney And Richard Grennell: Is There An Obligation To Stand Up For Your People?
The Richard Grennell flap has me thinking. Mitt Romney hired a gay conservative who worked under John Bolton in the George W. Bush administration to be his spokesperson for foreign policy matters. Grennell is open about his sexual orientation. ...
- Irony Can Be So Ironic: Affordable Care Objections
Listening to the arguments from the Supreme Court yesterday, the "irony can be so ironic" file had to be opened wide. When President Obama approached the health care debate, he looked at recent history. Republicans went nuts over "Hilary-care"...
- The Dignity Of Inanimate Objects
Working in Gettysburg and driving past the cemetery where Lincoln delivered his address every morning, you understand the ways in which we take things and places and grant them a special status. I have a student who argues that this status is dignity...
- Can We Stick A Fork In Him Yet?
So a tape of racist, sexist, anti-Semite, drunk driver and wife beater Mel Gibson's verbal abuse has been released as they are going through divorce hearings. Why is he still working? Is it that he's good looking? Is it that his fame is pre-established...
- Is America The Greatest Nation In The World? Nope
I think maybe it's time we change our name from The United States of America to The United States of Cognitive Dissonance. On the one hand, either when we visit other countries or, weirdly enough, during sports events in-house, we can't shut up...