Reply #41: The (unpopular) truth is... [View All]

...there's a reason that conservative and liberal minds exist in the population. It's no accident; nothing in our make-up is. Nature long ago edited out what didn't confer survival advantage. During a critical period of our evolution, we were tribal primates who needed some tribe members to protect and preserve, and others to wander and wonder. The combination proved to be best for all tribe members. One more legacy of this tribal phase remains: our irresistible urge to label anyone from outside our "tribe" an outsider, and to feel an instinctual reaction of hate to those who are different. This instinct can be overcome, but it takes discipline and a civilized mindset.

As a social species, we still need some who conserve the old and proven ways of doing things, who exercise caution and skepticism about anything new. They provide the fall-back, baseline survival for the group. Equally, we need those who value progress, new ways of doing things, who aren't afraid to envision a better world, and imagine fresh approaches to getting there. These people provide the ability to not only weather change, but to thrive because of it.

As a political species, we benefit from the competition between conservatives and liberals because the competition keeps both groups sharp and hungry. Power unopposed becomes power corrupted, always and everywhere, if one cares to read history books.

As a compassionate species, we need conservatives to encourage self-reliance, because in the end, no one will take better care of you than you. We need liberals because self-reliance is not enough, and, as Franklin said, if we do not hang together, we will all hang separately. Together, our strength is greater than the sum of our parts. It seems to me overwhelmingly greater, and this is part of the reason I'm a liberal.

What we do not need is blind hatred of people who have different political beliefs. We don't have to feel all cuddly toward them, and we absolutely should not paper over our differences, but more civility would lubricate the gears of society to everyone's benefit. There's a lesson in how the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys ended up destroying both parties.

Political intolerance is another form of religious intolerance, which is another form of blind loyalty to one's in-group, and xenophobic hatred of one's out-group. Belief systems are powerful and useful, but no honest person can look at history and say that any one religion or any one political dogma has ever yielded a utopia. Quite the contrary - monoculture is the path to totalitarian control.

That's why my rational self is glad to see a mix of conservatives and liberals on campuses, even though my political self cringes at the prospect. (They aren't called repugs for nothing.) As another poster in this thread said, it would be just fine by me to trade off maybe a hundred university presidencies or chancellorships for a like number of top posts in Fortune 500 companies. The problem with this commission's findings is that it focuses on the liberal islands within higher education, and ignores the conservative continents across the rest of society.

These are my opinions, nothing more, nothing less.

Peace.


edit: typo