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I was raised in a hard-core Democratic home. (My parents would never say "liberals." This term wasn't widespread during their era.)...I left the family religion but I didn't move away from my family's political beliefs until later in life. Now I considerate myself an independent...One of my uncles made it big in life and became a Republican. My parents explained that he was in a different tax bracket and wanted to protect his assets...My experiences in life caused me to question my political beliefs to the point that I wanted to "declare my independence" from both major parties. But I guess we're stuck with them for now....So many people just follow in the footsteps of their parents when it comes to religion and politics. They don't question much...I'm not sure about being born with any predispositions either way. Most kids wouldn't dare to "cross" or challenge their parent's basic beliefs. Who wants to be viewed as a traitor or a "black sheep?" It takes guts and courage to step outside the "mold" and "fold." Don't you think?
I was a conservative for a while since (IMO) my parents were. I then realized that I did not identify myself with some of the tenets of a conservative. I then thought I may have been a liberal. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those either. I don't know what I am :P
I think neither side (by itself) has it right for me.
My parents are both republicans. I grew up in a very conservative area. I always believed that i was a republican until about halfway through high school when i became enlightened. I am now liberal/libertarian/independent. So, I definitely am not biologically predisposed to one ideology.
I also know a lot about science, so this thread seems kinda ridiculous. It's clearly nurture not nature. Although, you could argue that some are born with a temperament that opposes change (conservative), while others are more open-minded(Liberal)?
My parents are both republicans. I grew up in a very conservative area. I always believed that i was a republican until about halfway through high school when i became enlightened. I am now liberal/libertarian/independent. So, I definitely am not biologically predisposed to one ideology.
I also know a lot about science, so this thread seems kinda ridiculous. It's clearly nurture not nature. Although, you could argue that some are born with a temperament that opposes change (conservative), while others are more open-minded(Liberal)?
I agree with you...I think some people handle "change" and "changes" better than others do...But it's all relative to each situation. For instance I might object to tearing down older building in my town because I like to "preserve history." But I would be "ok" with making changes in other areas...Some people like to "reinvent themselves" on a regular basis....They want to keep growing beyond who they have been in the past. If they change or alter their beliefs along the way so be it! It's all part of their growth and "evolutionary process" as far as they are concerned....But other people enjoy having more of a "fixed identity." It would be hard for them to admit that they were "wrong" about longheld beliefs....So I do think that our basic "personality make-up" has an influence over how we view and handle "changes."
There is no liberal or conservative. Those are just labels put on us to get us to buy into one of two ideologies. If you watch Fox, you are conservative, and vote McCain. If you are watch MSNBC, you are liberal, and vote Obama. This ridiculous paradigm is what is ruining this country. If they get us to buy into this lie, they can keep doing what they are doing. Over the last 50 years or so, no one president has been that much different than the other. Sure, some things might be slightly different, but the overall policies never change.
Hogwash, there are certainly Conservative people & liberal people. The labels are Democrat & Republican & they dont necessarilly correspond to conservative or liberal in the way that the politician like us to believe they do. Matter of fact theyre all liberal, just in different ways. You are correct about the last 50 years. We pretty much tossed true conservatism at the start of WW2, by the end of it we had discovered that we can twist things aqround to make things look however we want so we could say whatever we want. It is NOT conservative to go running around looking for wars, its not conservative to run up huge debt, its not conservative to regulate & control everything imaginable, its not conservative to give away billions in aid, its not conservative to use tax money to feed generations of lazy people, its not conservative to allow rampant unchecked illegal immigration, not conservative to operate states & the fed in deficit. All those things require a very liberal take on right & wrong as well as constitutionality.
Todays problem is we dont seem to want policy change unless it places more responsability on govt & less on people. Thats not conservative either, regardless of if its introduced by an elephant or an ass.
Ideally, people aren't anything at all and simply weigh the facts as they know them and apply reason to the results in a continuous process of estimating and reestimating their ideas. Maybe earlier on in life, people might come to such an approach or not depending in part upon observation of parental behavior, but there are books and there are more books, and at some point you've aged enough and read enough to know that you need to move out and move on.
By the way, the stateless nirvana ideal is a crash-and-burn scenario in actual practice. That's why it was abandoned in the very early hours of human history.
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