Passions, Beliefs, Extremist Tendencies... and Becoming DefensivesteemCreated with Sketch.

in #discussion5 years ago

Greater society seems to be growing ever more polarized. Maybe I am observing this wrong, but it seems like the "Middle Way" of dialogue, understanding and compromise is slowly giving way to more and more shrill voices passionately defending their perspectives from opposite ends of the spectrum.

It's across all arenas, sometimes political, sometime religious, sometimes financial... and even undefined. If you don't have "strong opinion," you pretty much get bulldozed out of the way.

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Signs of spring!

Yesterday, I was talking to a "friendly acquaintance" who's a regular visitor to our gallery... he just likes to come by several times a week and philosophize — at length — about current events, politics.

He's a very passionate fellow, and philosophically and politically occupies a space pretty far "to the right."

Cognitive Blindness

As we were talking and he was making his points — many of which involved massive criticisms of the political LEFT — I increasingly became aware of one of the pitfalls of holding tightly to a point of view, particularly when it might be considered controversial and inflammatory by many:

You tend to be at risk of growing blind to potential flaws in your perspective... perhaps because you spend so much time "being on the defensive" that you forget to reflect on that perspective and how you arrived at it. So you don't ever pause to examine it and even engage in some self-critique and a rational look at whether what you hold to be truth is keeping up with the ever-changing conditions in the surrounding environment.

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Apricot blossoms...

Sometimes — to use a less than perfect metaphor — you are "yelling at your kid for not taking out the trash when they actually HAVE taken out the trash, and you'd KNOW that if you'd taken the time to look in the trash can."

Or railing on about the evils of some controversial legislation that has long since been repealed.

One of the problems/challenges for people who tend to be "firebrands" and "catalysts" is simply the tendency to forget to "check themselves."

And when they don't, they tend to become "yet another shrill and annoying voice," rather than the compelling agent of change they perhaps were hoping to be. But because of their myopic approach, they will continue to "shoot the messenger" even when that messenger is merely trying to point out that the (figurative) "war has already been won."

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190311 13:28 PST

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I am not opposed to people having deep convictions. I do as well.

But as you have stated, there no reason to argue about a "victory" that already lines up with your world view. And although being pushing is a strategy, it rarely wins over the masses. Well thought out conversations (meaning both ways) and showing kindness can have an impact as well.

Generally this guy and I have very interesting conversations. But when we touch on certain aspects of politics, he starts making sweeping statements like "All Democrats are degenerates!" or maybe "anyone with an IQ below 90 should be euthanized at birth, as a favor to THEM."

People are entitled to their view; mostly my issue is with someone who sees NO "nuance" in perspectives he disagrees with, but lots of shading in perspectives he agrees with.

"he just likes to come by several times a week"

So do you actually enjoy and look forward to his visits? Or are you just too kind or passive to put a stop to them?

He visits me while I am at our store. And we have an "arrangement" that if I say "this is not a good time," he leaves without question, because he respects that I am trying to conduct business.

He's highly intelligent and generally very interesting, and we have some nice talks, except when he starts pontificating about certain political points. And I suppose I do enjoy the challenge of trying to reach through his cognitive blind spots so he has to think outside his paradigm... although I don't often get very far with it.

Familiar with the saying "Too good to leave, too bad to stay?" It's a bit like that. Once the early summer and our "tourist season" begins, I'm unlikely to see him much...

Great thought. Thanks for sharing your mind with us, and motivating that beautiful interaction! Thank you!

I'm a political agnostic. Some would say 'anarchist' but that would be unkind. Left wing, right wing...same bird. It doesn't much matter if it's a left boot or a right boot if it's on your neck. My political spectrum goes from free to UNfree. I detest the Later and will not EVER compromise.

Seems to me pretty much all politicos have some sort of agenda that revolves around controlling some part of my life.
Not much freedom in that...

yup...that's why ALL politicians are like diapers.
They're dirty and should be changed often.

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