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...

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