People are ignorant. I often am. The problem is, most people wear their ignorance proudly, like a fine cloak held tight against the wind of reason. They wrap themselves in opinions and beliefs without actually thinking about why. In our culture of instant information, media sound bites, and Internet viral marketing, we have too much data flooding in. Rather than truly explore a subject, people take short cuts in their thinking, and rely on emotion, “reliable sources”, and dogma to guide their conclusions.
People choose ignorance over thinking because it’s
easier.
Now, you’re probably nodding in agreement and
thinking to yourself, “Why, yes, certainly, most other people are idiots who
don’t think.”
But I’m not talking about other people. I’m talking about you. I'm talking about me.
As the old saying goes, if you’re not liberal in
your youth, you have no heart. In my
youth, I lived in a very strict home.
My parents were southern Baptists.
For most of my childhood it seemed God's most pressing concern was to save
me from watching “Star Trek” on Sunday Mornings and force me to go to Church.
I grew up in the rural hills of a small town named
Fairdale. My school was all-white. My
parents were very intolerant of non-Caucasians. I remember when, at the age of 7,
my father slapped me to the ground for speaking to a black kid while riding a merry go round
at Fountain Ferry Park. Later that year in
1969 the park was closed amidst race riots and violence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontaine_Ferry_Park
My childhood world-view was defined by an
anti-compass pointing in the opposite direction of whatever my parents
believed. They smoked, therefore smoking
was evil. They were racially intolerant,
therefore bigotry was evil and practiced only by uneducated whites. They embraced the Church: I became an atheist. My father had a short temper and was quick
with a belt, switch, or handy CB microphone to punish any imagined transgression. I became pacifistic and anti-capital
punishment.
But the 1960's ended and I "grew up" in
the 70's. I remember the end of the Viet
Nam war and the neighbors who lost family members. I remember the riots and demonstrations at my
high school over "enforced bussing" and the hatred my community had
for blacks. I remember Tricky Dick and Watergate. The corruption of the Republican party seemed
to manifest in the form of one sweating, paranoid man. Anita Bryant had her say on Adam and Steve
during the anti-gay rights campaign of the 70’s. Then came the 80's and Nancy
told us to “Just say no." Users of marihuana
were imprisoned longer than many murderers and violent offenders. The "gay cancer" infected public
consciousness and suddenly a new word was added to our vocabulary. AIDS. Women’s
rights were under siege on the battlefield of abortion. Evangelical scandals and molestations by
priests exposed the hypocrisy and corruption of the foundations of religious
institutions. The masks of the Moral Majority rotted away to expose the
hypocrisy of its own leaders. The war for personal freedoms was being fought in
the media, in our bedrooms, and in the closets.
Billy Joel said, “We didn’t start the fire.” I didn't, but I was waiting with marshmallows,
angry and hungry for change. I'd dropped
out of high school at 16. I got a GED
and got myself into the University of Louisville. I discovered science fiction
conventions. I became a part of the Rocky
Horror Picture Show cast at the Vogue Theater.
I volunteered at the Planned Parenthood clinic to help escort patients
past the protestors. I began hanging out
at the commune off Crittenden Drive. I
made some of the best friends I ever had.
Scott Averill. Chet Vittitow. Grant McCormick. I got a motorcycle and often owned nothing
more than my backpack and a half-tank of gas. Thank
God for communes and friends.
Over the next few years I watched as many of my
friends, gifted artists and alternative thinkers, suffered in poverty. Some spiraled into alcoholism and despair at
their inability to stay in step with a conservative culture more concerned with
tearing down the Berlin Walls than removing the social walls here at home. I watched my closest friend die of AIDS.
The 80's were a time of change for me. I got married. My incredible, wonderful daughter was
born. Then came the bitter divorce. I began working for a VR company in 3d
graphics and game design.
Then came the 90's and somewhere in the midst of my
pseudo-intellectual outrage a change began to creep in. Friends who had abortions in the 80’s
discovered later that living with their decision was something else entirely. I was one of the 3 founders of a dot com company. I was responsible for employees. I was no longer fighting the
establishment. I was the establishment.
The rest of my personal history is irrelevant. There was a second marriage. My incredible son was born. The dot com company imploded a few short
months before an IPO that could have changed the future of the company. I relocated to California and a teaching job
at a community college. There was a
second divorce. I moved back to
Louisville. While I got full custody of
my daughter from my Louisville marriage, I lost custody of my son in
California. Then things got weird.
Somewhere in all this I began to realize that my
politics had been entirely shaped by anger and perceived social injustices. Manson and Dalmer had changed my stance
against capital punishment. Willie
Horton made me question prison as rehabilitation. Did I want a system which could let such
individuals out in the same world as my kids?
What were the government's financial policies doing to my kids'
future?
Being part-owner of a business with employees, I learned
a lot of lessons. I've witnessed the
various extremes in management and business ownership politics. From being one
of the alternative artists, I went to managing and hiring artists. I had been a “have not” shaking my fist at
the system and demanding more social programs.
Business travel exposed me to other cultures, perspectives, and the
economics in other places. My brother, a
loving, kind, gentle soul without an ounce of racism in his heart, was severely beaten in Atlanta for the sin of walking
into the wrong nightclub looking for stand-up comedy. I began to see a larger picture, and my rose
colored glasses of youth began to slip.
The marshmallows roasted at protest fires turned to
ash in my mouth.
I looked long and hard at money, power, freedom,
capitalism, and socialism, Socialism, in concept, aspires to an intellectual
utopia in a perfect world. But this is
not a perfect world and the Socialism has more in common with Big Brother and
welfare societies than most would believe or understand.
As the old quote goes, “Those who do not study
history are doomed to repeat it.”
Apparently much of the leadership of both major political parties have neither
studied history, or even heard of its existence beyond the last 10 years.
History educates.
For example, many liberal proposals for current social problems, if
applied to history, simply would not have worked. Pacifism and Passive Resistance would not
have worked against Nazi’s, Turks, or Mongols, nor will it work against
religious fanaticism, ethnic cleansing, or genocidal intent. Fanatical terrorists
have declared war on our culture's very existence and our right to live. History says such evil doesn't
negotiate. It only bides for time until
it can strike a lethal blow.
From Ralph
Nader to Jesse Jackson to Farrakhan to Peta to Moveon.org to NOW, the Left’s
rhetoric has increasingly embraced the tactics of fascism and totalitarianism
under the guise of fighting tyranny.
Liberalism has become a socialist wolf disguised in the cloths of
individual rights. The issues I once
felt passionately about have been corrupted to satirical extremes.
I'm a vocal defender of gay rights. But I am critical of the term "Hate
Crime". Orwell would be proud of
it. How is a racist attack any more
deserving of punishment than an identical attack on another human being?
I grew up in a culture steeped in racism. I rebelled against it. I hated the white supremacists of my
community and family. I grew up
believing racism was somehow the sole property of the white bigots around
me. But then I discovered black racists,
Muslim racists, racists of all colors.
For every David Dukes there is a Farrakhan. Hate is not the property of
any race, nor the affliction of any sole group.
I believe in true equality, which was once the goal of both liberals and
conservatives. Now, it has devolved to a
self-serving political tool used as a card against anyone who dares seek true
color-blind equality or discuss political issues logically.
Those who seek to deny me or my child opportunity
for a job based on our skin color, or slavery laws a hundred years extinct, are
themselves committing racial discrimination. I will defend to the death
another’s right for equal opportunity, but I will not condone reverse
discrimination.
Once, as a Liberal and a Democrat, I thought of
myself as being considerate to different views. But I was closed-minded. I knew better than petty closed-minded
Republicans. I would dismiss any opinion
different from my own as uninformed, close-minded, and (gasp)
Conservative. Once I believed in a vast
government cover-up of UFO' sightings and alien evidence. Now, I’m inclined to believe 99% of all UFO
sightings are in fact weather phenomenon, misidentified aircraft, experimental
government aircraft, or delusional people needing psychiatric help.
I have paid attention to politics since first watching
Nixon sweat under the cameras as he resigned the Presidency. I've paid attention to politics. Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama, I
have heard their rhetoric and lived long enough to see the actions and results.
The Republican foreign policies of the 70’s and 80’s
actually seemed to work. Reagan achieved
the fall of the Berlin Wall, set the stage of the fall of the USSR, and brought about the economic
prosperity of the 80’s. He was also a
religious fundamentalist in the early stages of mental dementia. The seeds “Tricky Dick” had planted with
China in the 70’s grew into an odd stability in the 80’s. In the 90’s, Bush and Gorbachev sign START 1,
then came START 2 with Yeltsin. When
terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, killing six and
injuring over one thousand, President Clinton promised that “those responsible
would be hunted down and punished”. More bombings followed: 1995 bombing in
Saudi Arabia which killed five U.S. military personnel, 1996 Khobar Towers in
Saudi Arabia which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; 1998
bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa which killed 224 and injured 5,000, and the
2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39 U.S. sailors. All under President Clinton, who promised
that “those responsible would be hunted down and punished”, but yet spent more
to investigate Bill Gates and Microsoft than Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida.
I could go on, but my point here is this: Both the
Republican and Democratic Parties are defined by their extreme and most vocal
fringes.
The Republicans are defined (and properly demonized)
for the Religious Right zealots and bigotry.
The Democrats are defined (and properly demonized) for
Peta, Tree-huggers, Acorn, and radical activists.
Both Parties have become bloated self-perpetuating pork-barrel
institutions who rally their supporters with tactics of fear. Hate the other Party! Elect Us!
These are the new dark ages. The mass media and technology have created a
wall of noise that drowns out logical discussion. There is too much information: it creates a
digital storm where truth is lost among the lies and propaganda. News has become entertainment,
"Newsertainment." We live in
the time of the sound bite. We elect our
leaders based on their hair styles. We
live in Politically Correct times and God help us. To
speak the truth or disagree with facts or policies is to risk a charge of
racism.
Critical thinking is essential, or you’ll end up at
a kool-aid party at Jonestown with Reverend Jim Jones, or hosting a BBQ at Waco
Texas.
The Voice of the Republican Party may be that of the
extreme religious right, but the core fiscal and financial values of the Party
are sound.
The Democratic Party may be defined by Bread and
Circuses but the core values of domestic
equality and many of its social programs are worthy and laudable goals.
In terms of foreign and economic matters, with few
exceptions I am faced again and again with proof the Republican’s have it right
most of the time. However, in terms of
domestic policies such as gays and civil rights, it’s the Democrats who seem to
have it right, most of the time.
In my adult years, I have discovered to my horror
that I am very conservative in foreign and economic arguments. I am still liberal on gay marriage, abortion,
privacy, and freedom of speech, but I do not believe Republicans as evil. In fact, I see them as more effective, and
less dishonest than many Democrats. Just
too damned intolerant.
What does that make me? I'm no longer a Democrat and I'm too Liberal
to be Republican. My voting choices in
the last few years have been based on who has the best chance for setting the
foundation for the future of my kids either financially or in terms of national
security. In almost every case, that has
meant I held my nose and voted Republican.
I've considered joining the Libertarian Party.
Smaller government, better economic growth, stronger national security. But what chance do they have of ever actually
getting anything someone elected? Besides,
most of their candidates are idiots.
I'd consider joining the Tea Party but I believe in
the separation of Church and State, damn it!
Keep the Church out of our homes and laws. As I write this there is a real battle going
on in the Tea Party. The same fringe
Religious fundamentalists who have defined the Republican party are waging a
war to co-opt the Tea Partiers just as they did the Republicans.
There were no easy answers. No villains.
Just people thinking and acting with their hearts, and others trying to
light candles of reason in storms of stupidity.
The more I've learned in life the more I've realized I've been ignorant. I’m ignorant still. But at least I have come to the epiphany that
neither party is what the other pretends it to be. Ignorance isn't a crime, unless you hide
behind it out of fear.
You have to look deeper. You have to think. And the more you think and the deeper you
look, the more you change.
ig·no·rance n.
The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or
uninformed.
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