Liberals think of themselves as more worldly than conservatives. This is true in some ways, but not so in others. It seems (to me) that liberals are more likely to travel, and are more likely to visit Third World countries in particular. (If you meet an American traveler in, say, Guatemala, odds are strongly against that person being a Republican.) Liberals are more likely to listen to “world music,” and are more likely to watch foreign films. Liberals are more likely than conservatives to study the negative consequences of American foreign policy. But that’s about it. If you want to find a person who knows the history of pre-war Nazi Germany, the Middle East during the Cold War, or the partition of India and Pakistan, you’re better off looking to the right than to the left.
I am astonished and dismayed to discover this. I’m a life-long liberal and I devour history like food. Not until after September 11 did I learn I’m a minority on the left.
Darth Wong wrote:Liberals and conservatives both tend to learn whatever is most useful for the continued maintenance of their existing political views.
Correction: Both tend to ignore historical facts which serve as arguments against their respective ideologies.
"Hi there, would you like to have a cookie?"
"No, actually I would HATE to have a cookie, you vapid waste of inedible flesh!"
I think Wong is actually closer here. I've been around both, and it isn't that they ignore facts that are inconvenient to them (though they both do), it really is that they don't bother learning AT ALL certain things--it never even occurs to them that it might be relevant. A bad mistake, in my opinion: I've found it's as important, if not more so, to know the arguments AGAINST your position than it is to know the arguments FOR.
Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves…We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.--Ada Louise Huxtable, "Farewell to Penn Station", New York Times editorial, 30 October 1963 X-Ray Blues
Also, both groups tend to not bother thinking about things in any depth if it happens to support their view. I've talked to people who are very very hardcore about uncovering all the dirty little nooks and crannies about unfortunate incidents that happen to people in opposite political parties and always "read between the lines" it comes to offical explainations, but never ever will even think about applying the same scrutiny to practically identical events that happen to people of their own political party and will stick their fingers in their ears and shout the offical party line on the incident over and over until the discussion is over. For instance, this is particularly pronounced in the whole Israel/Palestine debate, but it applies to most debates. By and largely, when it comes to politics, most people are dirty hypocrites and some are even proud of it.
"Show me an angel and I will paint you one." - Gustav Courbet
"Quetzalcoatl, plumed serpent of the Aztecs... you are a pussy." - Stephen Colbert
"Really, I'm jealous of how much smarter than me he is. I'm not an expert on anything and he's an expert on things he knows nothing about." - Me, concerning a bullshitter
Admiral Johnason wrote:We need more people in the center.
We don't need more people in the center. Ever read a book called "Great Centrists"? There aren't any.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Admiral Johnason wrote:We need more people in the center.
We don't need more people in the center. Ever read a book called "Great Centrists"? There aren't any.
I must have missed the "Great Rightists" and "Great Leftists" books to which you implicitly compare this nonexistent document.
For a time, I considered sparing your wretched little planet Cybertron.
But now, you shall witnesss ... its dismemberment! "This is what happens when you use trivia napkins for research material"- Sea Skimmer on "Pearl Harbour".
"Do you work out? Your hands are so strong! Especially the right one!"- spoken to Bud Bundy
The enlightened absolutuist monarchs of the 1800s were fairly moderate, for their time. Except for Joseph II of Austria, he way farther left than the others.
Admiral Johnason wrote:We need more people in the center.
We don't need more people in the center. Ever read a book called "Great Centrists"? There aren't any.
I must have missed the "Great Rightists" and "Great Leftists" books to which you implicitly compare this nonexistent document.
That's not the point. The point is that history doesn't praise moderates, it praises the more extreme.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
