You Deserve a Break Today
Nov. 2nd, 2010 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperIn a few minutes, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daisy_knotwise and I will pile Katie and Julie in the minivan and drive over to the elementary school next door. Then she'll go in and then I'll go in and we'll take turns exercising our franchise.
And after that, we'll go to McDonald's. :)
The thing to remember is that about half the people in the country tend to agree with you at any given moment -- which means that half the people in the country tend to disagree with you at any given moment. This, of course, means that half of the country must be idiots.
If only we could figure out which half.
Ok, seriously now. There are idiots on both sides of any political divide. It's a fact of life.
And there are days when "facts" seem conveniently malleable. But even if everyone did agree on the facts, we still wouldn't necessarily agree on the solution, because we all apply different weightings to those facts based on our personal experiences and prejudices. (There's nothing inherently wrong with prejudices. I'm prejudiced against taking poison, but both of my parents did so upon the advice of their doctor. In that case, it was called chemotherapy and was probably a good idea. The trick is understanding when and how you want to use your judgment to override those prejudices. And it can be tricky.)
Overall, I still like democracy, much like Winston Churchill: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." Of course, he's also quoted as saying, "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." And there are days that I feel like that too. :)
But, you know, it beats the alternatives.
daisy_knotwise and I will pile Katie and Julie in the minivan and drive over to the elementary school next door. Then she'll go in and then I'll go in and we'll take turns exercising our franchise.And after that, we'll go to McDonald's. :)
The thing to remember is that about half the people in the country tend to agree with you at any given moment -- which means that half the people in the country tend to disagree with you at any given moment. This, of course, means that half of the country must be idiots.
If only we could figure out which half.
Ok, seriously now. There are idiots on both sides of any political divide. It's a fact of life.
And there are days when "facts" seem conveniently malleable. But even if everyone did agree on the facts, we still wouldn't necessarily agree on the solution, because we all apply different weightings to those facts based on our personal experiences and prejudices. (There's nothing inherently wrong with prejudices. I'm prejudiced against taking poison, but both of my parents did so upon the advice of their doctor. In that case, it was called chemotherapy and was probably a good idea. The trick is understanding when and how you want to use your judgment to override those prejudices. And it can be tricky.)
Overall, I still like democracy, much like Winston Churchill: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." Of course, he's also quoted as saying, "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." And there are days that I feel like that too. :)
But, you know, it beats the alternatives.