Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Absolutes
Is there anything that is absolute? When speaking to friends, listening to the news, or reading articles I realize that people often speak in absolutes. Maybe this is a practice to incite emotion or "to get a reaction". Or maybe its the byproduct of laziness. Maybe, just maybe, there are individuals who make conscience decisions to not think and either side black or white, republican or democrat, etc.. So I ask why not more independence? Why not more thought before decision? We established a country on independence or the ability not to have to follow the majority or the "establishment". Where has our spirit of independence gone?
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Absolutely there are absolutes!
It's hard for an idealist to admit this, but of course there is gray in our world. As Barack put it last night in the debate concerning Roe v. Wade, there are good people on both sides of the argument with good arguments (i.e. Mitt Romney for most of his career has been pro-choice, while Harry Reid has been pro-life). Both good people.
So admitting that there is gray, I will now return to the idealism. I believe in many absolutes. I believe all people should fight for the welfare of the poor and the afflicted. Is there only one way to do this? Probably not. I believe that there is a supreme being, God. Is there only one way to talk to Him or to see his influence in our life? Probably not. There probably isn't a greater example of fighting for absolutes than the Revolutionary War. There are many absolutes that our founding fathers would never compromise.
I think on the surface there is an intellectual higher ground to being an "independent" and looking at things in with an objective eye. Hopefully our physicians diagnosis us in this way. However, I believe there is danger in confronting moral issues without absolutes. Through our "independence" we sometimes fail to join a cause and that can prove fatal for us and for greater good. It's like in the LDS church we are counseled to make up our mind, to make our choices, before the choice actually presents itself. That empowers us and keeps us on the right path.
In the political arena there is definitely room for more independents. There should be more independent candidates. You have a good argument, we need to be more careful in our generalities. But we have to always remember that objectivity and seeing things in gray sometimes translates into sitting on the fence. And I probably don't need to comment on the quote, "all that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." Maybe that is too idealistic of me.
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