Just a thought
There's a few things that stir in my mind, and I really feel like getting them down in writing, but I don't feel like going through the slog of facebook and creating enemies of friends and family due to their unholy allegiance to superficial things, so I've decided to come on here. This is the place I feel I can yell as loud as I want with no one to hear and that makes it ok.
First off, I write this after a week of protests in Charlotte that has left a black man dead, our uptown torn apart, and I see the worst race relations I've ever seen. I see just an incredible amount of stupidity on both sides of this argument. "Black Lives Matter" vs "Blue Lives Matter", Black vs White, Conservative vs Liberal. Ultimately, what I see is pride as the root cause for all of this. It's not wrong to be proud of being black, or gay, or white, or conservative, or liberal, or ANYTHING, but when pride clouds any semblance of humility, then it is a huge problem. Seriously, only this last week have a really understood why pride is a Sin. EVERYONE has decided to block themselves into a tribe. Are you a conservative? Well then all police are saints and Every person who has ever committed a crime is always and forever guilty. Are you black? Then every policeman is out to harm you and white people are a root cause of the injustice in the world. Have ANY of these people thought about taking a step back and looking at things on a case by case basis? Maybe Michael Brown DID lunge for a gun and the police officer did have causation to defend himself in this situation. Maybe the crime of selling loose cigarettes didn't deserve a death sentence by the NYPD. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, the world is filled with more grey area than Black vs White...but this narrative doesn't fit the tribal mentality. It seems that in a time and place where the knowledge of the world is a click away, we choose to use that platform ONLY to reinforce our beliefs. Instead of seeking out decent opposing viewpoints, we only reach further into the doctrine of our tribe in hopes of finding reassurance.
This brings me to the second thing on my mind...This election. Good god. If anyone thinks that either of these 2 are going to do ANYTHING positive for this country, you've got another thing coming. That said, these 2 candidates are the product of Decades long incredible partisanship. Every day under bush was the worst day in the history of america if you were a liberal, and it's the same for Conservatives under Obama. Obama has done some pretty terrible things in office, but not all of them were awful, and likewise, the same can and should be said about Bush. It's these dogmatic political styles which has created the situation we're in. On the Left, you have people who don't care about how the things they want get done, they just want them done, and because of this you end up with a legitimate criminal running for the highest position in the land because "she has the best chance of getting things done". Good for you, except you don't think that if she's willing to break laws to get what she wants done achieved, she's not willing to throw you under the bus for her own good? On the right, Trump was the product of a group that routinely didn't hit back. Calling everyone who wasn't a big government liberal a racist, homophobic nazi for DECADES has only created a group of people who want to lash out against the people who constantly demonize them. They hate that when they turn on a show like Family guy, Daily show, SNL, or the myriad of other shows that they are constantly the brunt of the attack while the opposing viewpoint CONSTANTLY get's a free pass. It's stuff like this that only fuels people like Rush Limbaugh and Tomi Lahren. This one sidedness created Donald Trump. While Gary Johnson should be considered as a viable candidate (a 2 term governor who actually talks and acts like an adult), the tribes refuse to break dogma, and will stick with either their Red or Blue warlord come election day.
This brings me to the last thing, My political affiliation. I've registered as a libertarian, and I've never been more thankful. Unlike most who are a democrat or republican, I've spent a lot of time researching the positions and found that in this platform it doesn't have many areas of circular logic. In a democratic position you have people who think the government should help in almost all aspects of life, but then think that police have too much power and the military force should be lessened...This works out until you realize that the only way to implement more government programs ("Free" College and Universal healthcare for example) is by using armed men to come and extract money from unwilling people to pay for it. In the republican position, you have people screaming that the government should be smaller, and that it's too intrusive into peoples lives but support massive spending on the military and police forces...This line of thinking is just directly oppose to one another. I can't say I want the government to leave you alone and out of the same mouth say I want the power of the government to be MASSIVE. Libertarianism says I want a smaller government period. I don't need the government to decide my morals, I can do that. If you're a bigot, Ok, I just will choose to not do business with you. If you want to smoke weed, go ahead. If you're gay, who the hell cares. Gary Johnson has portions of this philosophy, but he's still not a true libertarian in the vein of Ron Paul (or if anyone random reads this, I encourage listening to Tom Woods or reading books by Murray Rothbard or Friedrich Hayek). What makes Libertarianism interesting to me is the fact that it's an actual philosophy. There's no Republican or Democratic philosophy, it's just the flavor of the day that illicit votes. Libertarianism is grounded in personal liberty. It's grounded on the principal that regardless of lifestyle, I should choose how I live my life. This line of thinking is directly opposed to Tribal group think because each individual makes decisions for themselves.
I wrap with this, In a time of polarization in the world, I quite enjoy the fact that I'm and objective mind in a tribal landscape. I'm not beholden to any false tribe but the one of my own choosing (and that is to have accepted Christ into my life). The only way we will ever move forward is to stop being beholden the narrative of these imaginary groups we put ourselves into and start placing humility above pride. If that day doesn't come, then be prepared to live in perpetual turmoil.
First off, I write this after a week of protests in Charlotte that has left a black man dead, our uptown torn apart, and I see the worst race relations I've ever seen. I see just an incredible amount of stupidity on both sides of this argument. "Black Lives Matter" vs "Blue Lives Matter", Black vs White, Conservative vs Liberal. Ultimately, what I see is pride as the root cause for all of this. It's not wrong to be proud of being black, or gay, or white, or conservative, or liberal, or ANYTHING, but when pride clouds any semblance of humility, then it is a huge problem. Seriously, only this last week have a really understood why pride is a Sin. EVERYONE has decided to block themselves into a tribe. Are you a conservative? Well then all police are saints and Every person who has ever committed a crime is always and forever guilty. Are you black? Then every policeman is out to harm you and white people are a root cause of the injustice in the world. Have ANY of these people thought about taking a step back and looking at things on a case by case basis? Maybe Michael Brown DID lunge for a gun and the police officer did have causation to defend himself in this situation. Maybe the crime of selling loose cigarettes didn't deserve a death sentence by the NYPD. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, the world is filled with more grey area than Black vs White...but this narrative doesn't fit the tribal mentality. It seems that in a time and place where the knowledge of the world is a click away, we choose to use that platform ONLY to reinforce our beliefs. Instead of seeking out decent opposing viewpoints, we only reach further into the doctrine of our tribe in hopes of finding reassurance.
This brings me to the second thing on my mind...This election. Good god. If anyone thinks that either of these 2 are going to do ANYTHING positive for this country, you've got another thing coming. That said, these 2 candidates are the product of Decades long incredible partisanship. Every day under bush was the worst day in the history of america if you were a liberal, and it's the same for Conservatives under Obama. Obama has done some pretty terrible things in office, but not all of them were awful, and likewise, the same can and should be said about Bush. It's these dogmatic political styles which has created the situation we're in. On the Left, you have people who don't care about how the things they want get done, they just want them done, and because of this you end up with a legitimate criminal running for the highest position in the land because "she has the best chance of getting things done". Good for you, except you don't think that if she's willing to break laws to get what she wants done achieved, she's not willing to throw you under the bus for her own good? On the right, Trump was the product of a group that routinely didn't hit back. Calling everyone who wasn't a big government liberal a racist, homophobic nazi for DECADES has only created a group of people who want to lash out against the people who constantly demonize them. They hate that when they turn on a show like Family guy, Daily show, SNL, or the myriad of other shows that they are constantly the brunt of the attack while the opposing viewpoint CONSTANTLY get's a free pass. It's stuff like this that only fuels people like Rush Limbaugh and Tomi Lahren. This one sidedness created Donald Trump. While Gary Johnson should be considered as a viable candidate (a 2 term governor who actually talks and acts like an adult), the tribes refuse to break dogma, and will stick with either their Red or Blue warlord come election day.
This brings me to the last thing, My political affiliation. I've registered as a libertarian, and I've never been more thankful. Unlike most who are a democrat or republican, I've spent a lot of time researching the positions and found that in this platform it doesn't have many areas of circular logic. In a democratic position you have people who think the government should help in almost all aspects of life, but then think that police have too much power and the military force should be lessened...This works out until you realize that the only way to implement more government programs ("Free" College and Universal healthcare for example) is by using armed men to come and extract money from unwilling people to pay for it. In the republican position, you have people screaming that the government should be smaller, and that it's too intrusive into peoples lives but support massive spending on the military and police forces...This line of thinking is just directly oppose to one another. I can't say I want the government to leave you alone and out of the same mouth say I want the power of the government to be MASSIVE. Libertarianism says I want a smaller government period. I don't need the government to decide my morals, I can do that. If you're a bigot, Ok, I just will choose to not do business with you. If you want to smoke weed, go ahead. If you're gay, who the hell cares. Gary Johnson has portions of this philosophy, but he's still not a true libertarian in the vein of Ron Paul (or if anyone random reads this, I encourage listening to Tom Woods or reading books by Murray Rothbard or Friedrich Hayek). What makes Libertarianism interesting to me is the fact that it's an actual philosophy. There's no Republican or Democratic philosophy, it's just the flavor of the day that illicit votes. Libertarianism is grounded in personal liberty. It's grounded on the principal that regardless of lifestyle, I should choose how I live my life. This line of thinking is directly opposed to Tribal group think because each individual makes decisions for themselves.
I wrap with this, In a time of polarization in the world, I quite enjoy the fact that I'm and objective mind in a tribal landscape. I'm not beholden to any false tribe but the one of my own choosing (and that is to have accepted Christ into my life). The only way we will ever move forward is to stop being beholden the narrative of these imaginary groups we put ourselves into and start placing humility above pride. If that day doesn't come, then be prepared to live in perpetual turmoil.