 |
 |
|
|
Thought
Experiment
by
Dean Jacques
I’d like to invite you to share a thought experiment.
It is common nowadays to disparage everything you hear from the political party that is opposite of your point of view. That is how the trap of partisanship works. You identify with one side, and then trash the other with almost religious fervor.
A person of integrity, however, someone genuinely concerned with truth, needs to pull away from political dogma and think independently.
This means forgetting the opposite party/ideology for a while, and thinking carefully of the one you most align with. Examine what you have heard from them over the last few years, even the subtext, and try to identify misleading statements, outright lies, and false promises. This is important. If you support a given party, it should be worthy of your support. That demands close examination.
Make a list of issues and claims, and even popular taglines. Do some research. Be critical. Mark each as being true or false, helpful or divisive.
Once you do that, search your conscience to decide whether or not you should continue supporting it. There is always a viable alternative (and I don’t mean joining the other side). You can always make the effort you think independently. Take truth seriously. Discard those manufactured ideologies with the assurance that there are usually more than two alternatives. Support no one blindly. Apply moral imperatives that come from Nature’s Law rather than some well-paid propagandist.
Democracy deserves no less from a free people than the exercise of freedom of thought. That is our truest patriotic obligation.
I wonder if anyone will try this.