Wednesday, May 17, 2006

news to the conservatives and liberals

hey, apparently how you treat people matters. who'd a thunk it? i think that how you treat people is in direct proportion as to how you see people. yeah, no brainer, but when you see people as less than or invisible- problems arise(see any of my previous posts on immigration). 'conservatives' generally see people with less money and power as nothings while the 'liberals' see people as children who need to be helped with everything because they are better at it than the person themselves. perhaps that's why there are so many centrists out there. it makes for better communication.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm formulating an argument that goes something like this:

There are so many centrists out there because being a centrist is easy, there are lots of lazy people, and lazy people are drawn to what's easy.

When I look at our politicians, I see the centrists trying to make nice after other people shake things up with new ideas (or, sadly, cling to outdated ones). They're the clean-up crew, they're the hand-holders and baby sitters, the fence-sitters, the complacent, the "I'll do it, but I'm not going to stress myself out about it" types. Centrists aren't risk-takers. Leaders are.

Something like that.

Then again, to read our newspapers, you'd think "moderate" meant "panderer".

Ah, this fence sitting kinda hurts, but then again, it's kinda ok...

billie said...

yes, there is a need for leaders but 'too many chiefs and not enough indians' does not lend itself to much productivity either. not everyone can be a leader in each situation- and i do understand what you are saying about complacency and status quo and such. i don't think that everyday people are reflected in our politicians- oddly enough. you need a bit of common ground to get through daily life that doesn't translate into the realm of politics. people in the real world outside the beltway could not take the time to contiually carp at each other in a polar opposite way.

having said that, in this country at this time, i don't see much common ground at all and the divide between classes and ideologies is a chasm. there isn't a way to bridge that gap at this point and i think that we have to go the way of the progressive movement- who are interested in not being bigots or wingnuts or dictators. it doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to treat people with the basic- very basic- respect that is due to all human beings simply because they are people. we have to do this for ourselves to retain our humanity.