Right vs. Left

I've been thinking about this for a long time;

"Conservatives will sell their grandmothers for a dollar"

"Liberals want the government to run their entire lives"

(These are the polite comments :D)

My father (Whom is a Conservative) and I have been arguing over School vouchers. I (Moderate to partly Liberal), am against the School Voucher system. My father, is for them. We have gone round after round about this. Gotten into heated arguments that makes Maia cringe (since these arguments are all over Skype, when she is here, she doesn't have much choice but to listen in), and everything.

But one thing keeps making me pause; Dad is an intelligent man, certainly as intelligent as I. If I can see the problems with the voucher system, why can't he?

The voucher system in a nutshell: We all pay taxes, and then each parent gets a voucher for "Tuition", if you will. Then the parent can take his voucher and kid to any school he wants. That way if the Public School system is not doing a good job, you can take your kid elsewhere.

Pros: This system encourages competition, public schools will have to shape up fast to keep up with the private schools who will (In time) bring our children's average test scores back up.

Cons: If a monopoly occurs, competition ceases.

We don't actually argue the point, you see. What we really do is spend time slinging insults at each other. "Guy, you're being Naive! the Government hasn't changed in 200 years, why do you think it will suddenly straighten up and fly right now? By the time we straighten the government up, our kids will be complete idiots. You Liberals all think that the Government should just walk in to your lives and take it over."

To which I reply: "Dad, you can't give our children's future over to business, Think Microsoft; do you like Vista? No? Too Bad, Microsoft has paid a lot of money so that computers don't work with anything other than Vista... so, unless you want to work in the stone age, you have to have Vista. Is Vista the best OS? No. But you don't have a choice. (And before I get people telling me "Yes you do; you can go to Linux", in actuality, you can't. Many very specific programs I use can only be used on Windows. Switching to Linux would stop all work I'm doing completely... No one has ported some of the programs I use to Unix... and "Gimp" as wonderful as it is, was built expressly to NOT be Photoshop, so using Gimp means I would have to start at ground zero and relearn the program again from scratch). How, my dear father is Microsoft a good example of "Good Capitalism at work"? Would you really want to be forced to take your kid to "Microschool"?

He would then say: "Guy! People are graduating High School without being able to read their diplomas!"

But, I keep coming back to the same thought; "Dad is easily as intelligent as I..."

What is the REAL problem between dad and me?

We keep assuming strange things about the other; "Dad, you would rather have a "Clear Channel" school where everyone has to learn about the Bible (Because the Christian Churches were the best funded, and have run everyone else out of business), and evolution is banned rather than a system that is controlled by the Constitution and civil rights."

"Guy, you would rather let the government take care of you, even if they are so tangled up in beauracracy that they can't buy a pencil without going through 50 people, rather than give the parents the right to choose whom they want to teach their children."

And that is the problem; we get so mad (I mean that in the "Insane" sense, not the "Angry" sense), that we would rather instult each other than understand each other.

I wasn't looking to change dad, by the way. I just assumed that my belief that he was an idiot must be flawed, since I happen to know better. So I wanted to understand his side...

But I had to get past all this rhetoric first.

"Guy, come up with a better plan, then."

Dad, I'm sorry, but that's just provoking a fight; Brilliant minds, far superior to mine have been working this problem for thousands of years. You can't expect me to surrender my argument simply because I am not more intelligent that the cumulative history of the world.

Why don't we get to the bottom of this, find out where our real positions are, and then figure out a solution together?

Here's the way I see it: There are two kinds of core monitary democracies we can have:

Socialism: Everyone pays the government taxes, the government then provides services rendered (School, military, food, clothing, etc).

Capitalism: Everyone pays other people to render services.

Of course, there are flaws to both of these governments. That's why we are mixed (For example: the US doesn't have a capitalistic military (The government pays for it), but we do have a capitalistic medical system....)

The real difference between Liberals and Conservatives is in which one of these two evils they see as lesser.

Liberals seems to see socialism as the lesser of two evils, conservatives see capitalism as the lesser of the two.

Neither group really thinks that we should be all capitalist or all socialist. That's a pipe dream on both counts, the reason we are mixed is that neither system works well in reality. The best we can hope for is some semblance of balance.

Why is it, then, that when we argue, we constantly assume the other side WANTS to do bad things?

Doesn't it seem like that?

a thought experiment

I have a little thought game to play for you folks out there (All three of you that read my blog):

Pick the one topic you most hate, most dispise, absolutely detest...

Do you have it in your mind?

That one topic that really makes your blood boil...

Can you see it? Clearly?

Now, flip it around and defend it. Defend it using the most reasonable and logical arguments that you can.

For example; let's say you are Pro-Life. Defend the Pro-Choice side (Or vice-versa).

I'll bet that it will make you very uncomfortable. I'll bet that you can't even do it. I'll bet that you end up saying outrageous, unreasonable statements like "I think Pro Choice is great beacuse I love murdering babies!"

We simply can't do it.

Why?

Because we are afraid. We are afraid that if we understand a viewpoint, we automatically agree with it. So instead we refuse to learn about "The Other Side". We rebel, we block it... and we get entrenched.

We are more likely to believe that the "Other Side" is naive, stupid, stubborn, dense, all kinds of interesting things...

We are more likely to believe the "Other Side" is less intellegent than us. That they don't have all the facts, that they didn't research it as much as we did...

Rather than try to look at both sides of the argument and come up with a solution for the problem, we will stand there, declare that a solution is impossible (This from the monkeys that learned how to fly in space) and insult the other side.

Which, since we don't actually know anything about the "Other Side"(because we are too afraid that understanding is agreeing), we do nothing more than prove that we really aren't all that bright...

We are more willing to turn our friends and family into enemies than to solve problems.

Now, here's the second part to this little thought experiment:

Did you just fight with a friend? A lover?

Recall your last fight with that person, take their side, and defend it.

I'll bet you can't do it. I'll bet you can't make their side make sense to you. No matter what you do it'll will always come down to you making up stupid statements; "I didn't take out the trash because I LIKE being lazy!" You won't be able to make it be reasonable. You are simply too afraid.

Interesting, isn't it?

The Cheyenne had an interesting thing to say about this, we have all heard it, but no one actually practices it any more;

"Don't judge a man until you have walked a thousand steps in his moccasins"

We aren't even willing to take one step, because we are too afraid that we might be caught wearing his moccasins...

-----

(Moon hoax people are just idiots! Yep... I can tell that I'll be practicing this thought experiment for a while...)

How does it feel?

When I took my shodan test, one of the questions that they planned on asking was "How do you feel when the arrow hits the target?"

This is a loaded question and I know it. As I have said in earlier posts, Kyudo isn't about hitting the target, it's about correct form... At least not until much, much later.

In practicing for the Shodan test, I got to actually fire on the target a little... the only time I hit the target was when my arrow hit the next target over... most of the time the arrow flew high or low (Remember, the targets are 28 meters away... that's a looooong way away). I've never hit the target...

Now, I'm preparing to go for my Nidan (Second Degree Black Belt), so tonight Sensei says "Guy-chan, go one more round on the makiwara (The practice target), and then you are going for the targets."

OooooooOOOooooOOOOooooooo.... Says me... (Mostly because my stomach just clenched up and forced all the air out of my lungs...) Great... I know I have to practice this, but I liked it better when the target was less than a meter away...

I get up to the line... and fire my first arrow....

Let's say, I'm glad I can recover that arrow...

The second arrow is fired... it hits the curtains way above the targets and sticks there, shaking loose all the cicadas that are sqweeeeee-sqwee sqwee sqweeeing.... (When you shoot an arrow near them, they chatter... kinda like really mad Jawas or something... betcha didn't know that... I didn't)

Then it's time for round 2... First arrow; waay to the left... but hey! In the dirt near the targets at least!

Then the second arrow: waaay right... I'm trying so hard to remember where my bow was when I released... I keep forgetting... it's really irritating... I can't seem to sight in on anything (A Yumi doesn't really have much in the way of sights).

We go to tea (Which, since it's 7,000 degrees in the dojo is actually Mitsuya cider on ice). Sensei talks about our trip to Kyoto.

"Guy-chan, where do you want to go in Kyoto?"

"Shin-kage-school dojo" I say. Appreciative eyebrows raise, I continue, "Yagyu Castle, where Yagyu Jubei lived."

Sensei smiles at me, "Yosh!" he says, "Guy-chan, only one more year, ne? Then you go home..." He sips his cider, "Only one more year... I'm going to miss you."

Heads nod around the circle.

"Okay, back to shooting! Last round! Guy, you're up, again!"

So here I am, back on the line. I draw back the bow... I let the arrow go...

And I make more cicadas mad...

I don't know... this is a lot harder than it looks.

I nock my last arrow...

The cicadas are looking at me with evil eyes... they have just settled in...

I let the arrow go..

THAK! -- the sound of arrow hitting bamboo and paper.

everyone in the dojo yells "YOSH!"

"Of course, the last one..." Sensei says, grinning, "Last Samurai...."

How do I feel?

Relief.

Well... Helllooooooo 36

Even when I'm totally still, I just can't seem to stop moving through time...

*Sigh*

---Feelin' old