Some readers of this blog – maybe two or three of you – have asked where I have been the past couple of months since I last posted something on my blog http://ecclesiaetpublica.blogspot.com
Rest assured, I am still this side of the grass and enjoying the gift of retirement and advancing age with a woman I still dearly love after 44 years of marriage. Fortunate lad that I am, I am told she still loves me as well. Life is good.
Actually, what has kept me from blogging these past couple of months is ennui. I am tired of hearing myself rant against right-wing conservatives in politics and in the Catholic Church. In other words, I got tired of myself and decided to take a break. And, if I am not mistaken, I heard a sigh of relief as well from some beleaguered souls on my blog distribution list.
In the intervening period, I have actually made an effort – albeit half-heartedly -- to understand the conservative point of view, reading every day the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal, for example. Heroically, I even managed to read a column or two by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. Unfortunately, that hasn’t helped; I still don’t get that way of thinking. The only change is that I grind my teeth more.
Then, an article appeared in the Washington Post a couple of days ago that helped explain the differences between liberals and conservatives. It’s called “Liberals and Conservatives Don’t Just Vote Differently. They Think Differently.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberals-and-conservatives-dont-just-vote-differently-they-think-differently/2012/04/12/gIQAzb1kDT_story.html
As the author Chris Mooney observes, “Liberals and conservatives have access to the same information, yet they hold wildly incompatible views on issues ranging from global warning to whether the president was born in the United States to whether his stimulus package created any jobs.” It’s not just that, he continues, “Partisanship creates stunning intellectual contortions and inconsistencies.” An example that comes to my mind is the “individual mandate” in the Affordable Care Act. Originally that was a Republican position, but now it is roundly reviled by the same people who not too long ago supported it. "None of these things make any sense," Mooney goes on to say, "unless you view them through the lens of political psychology.”
As research has shown, he says, liberals and conservatives “process information in divergent ways and to differ on any number of psychological traits.” Generally, “liberals score higher on a personality measure called ‘openness to experience’…. This means liberals tend to be the kind of people who want to try new things, including new music, books, restaurants and vacation spots – and new ideas.”
Conservatives, on the other hand, “tend to be less open,” he writes, “less exploratory, less in need of change – and more conscientious, a trait that indicates they appreciate order and structure in their lives.”
This does not mean liberals are right and conservatives are wrong, or that liberals are good and conservatives are bad. But, it does help explain for me why intelligent, supposedly well educated people persist in believing, for example, that God created the world in six days. Literally speaking. No hedging allowed there because every word of the Bible is literally true, they maintain. Some of these creationists are fellow Catholics who will not listen to arguments for evolution, even though the last two conservative Popes had declared evolution to be indisputably, scientifically true, beyond question.
In the secular realm, global warming is another example, as is our cockamamie tax system which favors the top 1 percent of Americans, and yet middle and lower income conservatives in the Tea Party continue to support it even though they are the ones who are getting the short end of the stick.
The list is virtually endless, but there is no point belaboring the issue.
Where does that leave a hard core liberal like me? Pretty much where I am on the political spectrum – hopefully not so smug and a tad less judgmental about conservatives’ motivation, but certainly crystal clear on how I tend to vote in the November election, at both the local and national level.
Much more about all of the above in upcoming postings. Stay tuned.
Gerald E. Lavey
Gerry--Another great blog. Along these lines,you might enjoy reading George Lakof's book, MORAL POLITICS. My daughter gave it to me a few years ago and I have found it a wonderfully insightful read on the question of Conservative and Liberal ways of thinking. Lakof is a linguist at UC Berkeley and uses the lens of basic organizing metaphors to look into the way each mode of thinking works its own logic. --Mike Garland
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mike. So nice to hear from you. I'll definitely check out Lakof's book.
ReplyDeleteHi Jerry,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your blog so much. Hope you counted me as one of those who missed your posts. What the hell is wrong about ranting about right wing nuts? If people like you don't rant, they'll take over the world.
I do get your point. It's always beneficial to get to know what the other side is thinking. Agree with you.
Hope you're well.
Kevin
Gerry,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the musings. i am a little suspicious of psychological reductionism, however. I know I was a conservative once--af Fusz--then became a liberal--at St. Mary's--and then became a radical and a social anarchist at Temple and Regis. I think it is a holistic phenomenon with tiny webs of belief, desire, and intention reweaving themselves to make a new organism and leaving the old beliefs etc. as minor conversation partners whom one is always playing with. That's growth and I hope it never stops (though I agree that it is baffling how few conservatives I can hold a give and take dialogue with). Again, thanks, Gerry.
Tom Duggan