I've continued to visit several self-proclaimed conservative blogs and I've tried to have substantive discussions. It's a very difficult task indeed! I'm certainly NOT suggesting that there aren't any conservatives in the world who are willing to have a reasonable discussion -- I'm simply not encountering very many.
I've really tried hard to figure out what is the motor that drives such people. The answer I've arrived at is FEAR. Hard-core conservatives appear to be scared people.
There are few bounds to their fear. They are scared of people who
I've really tried hard to figure out what is the motor that drives such people. The answer I've arrived at is FEAR. Hard-core conservatives appear to be scared people.
There are few bounds to their fear. They are scared of people who
- don't look like they do
- don't think like they do
- don't act like they do
- don't smell like they do
- don't worship like they do
- aren't them.
They are a very EXclusive lot. They are absolutely terrified that someone might barge into their party and sample the onion dip.
It's a sad situation.
It's a sad situation.
I'm running across a lot of blogs this week that are similarly alarmed but for different reasons. Must be a moon phase or something.
ReplyDeleteI tried talking to my husband (remember him, the gun-loving reneck Republican?) about politics last night and it was almost a disaster. I wanted facts, he gave me hooey. I wanted his proof, he gave me unprovable garbage about how everything now is the fault of Clinton's Democratic administration. SO frustrating. But at least he doesn't mind the way I smell *g*
I think it's a full moon. ;-)
ReplyDeleteTo illustrate your point, consider the 12 year old boyscout who was lost in the wilds of Utah. When he saw would be rescuers on the trail, he hid because they were strangers and he was afraid of them. When some later rescuers finally caught him, he wouldn't speak to them because he had been taught to never speak to strangers. Now, I ask you, shouldn't a twelve year old be taught there are times when we are in trouble, strangers may be the only hope we have, even if they do attend a different church or vote differently than our family.
ReplyDeleteTo teach that kind of fear to a child is unconscionable.
I suppose you think the boy's parents were republicans. Maybe they're just stupid.
ReplyDeleteBeing that it happened in Utah, I think the parents were Mormons, but doesn't that make them Republicans by default?
ReplyDeleteDino,
ReplyDeleteI both agree and disagree with your point. In one sense, I think you're right. It seems far too many parents have unnecessarily instilled fear in their children. They have taught them to be fearful/distrustful of anyone not of their race or faith or economic level or ethnicity or whatever. And if filled with a lot of fear and distrust, this can easily turn (or be turned by a good manipulator) into hatred.
That said, there IS a reason for children NOT to be so trustful of strangers. Hardly a week goes by in which we don't hear of somewhere in the country a child is approached and/or abducted by a stranger or someone casually known to the child. Sometimes I ask myself, "Why on earth would the kid get in a stranger's car or a stranger into the house?"
So, while the 12 year old's fear seems a bit too much in this case, who's to say it's not warranted? I mean, this story COULD have had a different and ugly ending. Instead of rescuing this youth, the man who found him could have been a pedophile. Later, once the child's dead body was found, a lot us would be asking, "Why on earth did the youth go with this guy?"
For me, it's a complicated issue, one that doesn't lend itself well to a simple analysis of right or wrong behavior.
Dear Trey:
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed some reading of your local blog.
Your interest in Tao, might not sit well with the Radical Muslim community. If fact, it may get your 47 year old face on some tape someday.
As someone who is kind of set in his ways at 58, you know Republican/Nam vet ,gun owner(love targets at 300 or more yards) not a big NASCAR fan..I drag race one of those 600 hp fossil fuel burning problems, and a Christian, I'd say we both are in trouble with those folks you want too appease and tolerate.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I meant to say was your response to Dino's comment was on-target. Especially the last 3 paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteFurther, I believe irrational fear has permeated our society. We've become so litigious that people are afraid to discipline their children in public, or even help someone in need.