Tuesday June 21st, 2005

Admit you don't know
Current mood: pensive

In this age of political and social polarization, an age when you’re supposed to have concrete, immovable positions on a variety of social and political issues, this age where politics and social policy have become inseparable, I think sometimes it is braver to admit you don’t know what is the “right” position. Although I am a self-admitted raging liberal about most things, I don’t believe I have to agree with everything a political party says. It doesn’t necessarily mean you lack convictions, it may just mean you’re giving an issue the thought it deserves, that you’re looking at more than one angle. Narrow-minded convictions are chic these days; I believe people are looking at politics in the same way they experience their religion. It’s almost like there’s a certain political creed, akin to a Bible, that one must follow to the letter.
What annoys me is that more people can’t admit their ambivalence about certain issues. I admit to ambivalence about censorship (but only concerning what kids have access to, I believe children do deserve some innocence), abortion, and certain personal freedom issues. I think if more people admitted that they don’t know everything, that they don’t necessarily have the right answer, we’d have a better society and a better political system and we wouldn’t find ourselves in a political, religious and social standoff, split down the middle. I know these are deep thoughts for a Tuesday morning, but somehow I had to get this off my chest.