I came to this forum looking for a think tank. I read the Politics blog and the debates but all I see are arguments with no one really facing issues and actually submitting ideas for change that will help America. In my opinion a stalemate accomplishes nothing. Doesn't this atmosphere remind you of the U.S. just before the Civil War?
Anyway my point is we need thinkers outside the battle zone so I am reaching out to people whom I know see a bigger picture. This is my first thread so please indulge me if I have stepped across the lines. I seek truth and people who want to guide with their wisdom.
I will continue to read the Political Forum, it's like reading the editorial/responce pages in the newspaper. But I get little satisfaction when there is no agenda nor compassionate desire to join forces to turn things around.
I thank you for your time.
The reason politics is so contentious is that we develop a world view that we create to make sense of the world. Once someone damages that world view, our ability to make sense of that world is threatened.
Put another way, we can prove precious little. In fact, you could argue that nothing can be proven. All we have are what we perceive to be facts. In and of themselves, these facts are meaningless until we assign these facts value. We assign these facts value based upon how these facts and effect our lives and the lives of others. Othewise these facts are delegated to the realm of trivia and deemed useless.
Essentially what we do is assign facts value, interpret their correlation to other world events, and incorporate them into our lives. Simply put, our only ability to function revolves around a beleif system of some kind. We then use this beleif system as a foundation and begin to build upon it. Christ once said that a fool builds his house on a sub par foundation and at some point the entire structure they have pain stakingly built upon is counted as a total loss. The irony here is the more they build and invest on that structure, the more investment they have to defend in that structure. That is why a belief system is perhaps the most important aspect of our existence, and also why it is often defended to the death and often causes our ruin. Of course, once a belief system has been compromised, a crisis of sorts develops until we can either mend or adopt a new belief system, assuming that we can recover.
I suppose that is why most people avoid discussing topics such as religion and politics. The other party has a belief system related to these things that inevitably differ from your own in some way, and any attempt to contradict their belief system is perceived as a threat to their ability to make sense of the world. In the end, philosophy is at the heart of each of these belief systems. The philosophy of politics cover how we wish to tell everyone else how to live. Religion is also geared in this direction, but to a lesser degree except in theocracies in the Middle East. As a result, political discourse receives the most attention on these boards as well as pretty much anywhere else you go, for everyone seems to know what is best for the chap down the street.
It is somewhat humbling to know that we are all such self righteous power hungry pricks, but that's just how it is.
