Pride

How many times have you heard someone say:"I refuse to believe that..." ? Usually followed by something like "two people can't get along if they try" or "civilized people can't settle their differences without going to war" or even "our elected officials would do anything that would be that bad for the country."

I think this is a large part of our current problem in this country. Not that we seem to be bitterly divided over whether this country will abandon individualism and embark on collectivism. Nor that we are embroiled in a war with terrorists that wish to kill us all. Nor even that our elected officials are preparing to sign away our sovereignty via international treaties which they don't bother to actually read before they sign them. Those are challenges, but none are unsolvable but for the fact that we refuse to believe that such things could be so.

Open and honest discourse requires that both parties believe that the other party's points could be valid. I have been spending a bit of time lately "discussing" some of the issues currently before our country with those who seem to be starting from a point of view that disallows even the possibility that I could be right. Even when I point out that I have have spent much time reading books on the subject of the discussion as well as researching various bits from credible 1st party sources, these folks refuse to believe that what I am saying could possibly have any validity. Even when I name the books and authors and provide links to multiple, well known and credible web-sites, my knowledge is dismissed as irrelevant, because these folks simply refuse to believe...

I am somehow the inflexible one (and other names not so nice) when I refuse to give over my well researched opinion on the basis of a cursory web-search on their part to provide one or two links to articles that they think are all anyone needs to come to a rational conclusion. One man recently directed my attention to a wikipedia article and the BBC interview of a particular Imam to make his point and thought that this should be enough to sway me. When I refused to be swayed, he directed me to the result of a cursory web search showing compromised sources who were saying what he wanted to hear. I very much doubt that he bothered to look at the links I and others posted for his edification. Why should he? Those things don't fit his belief that such things cannot be true. And he refuses to believe that what I am saying might be true. (And really-wikipedia as a source? Ask your children if they are allowed to use wikipedia as source material for a book report.)

How are we, in this country, to preserve our Constitution, heritage and values, when our fellow countrymen have closed their minds to the possibility that they could be wrong? When those who present well researched facts are ridiculed? I once believed as did that fellow I mentioned above. When I was challenged, I did my homework, found that I was wrong and changed my opinion. It's called learning. Perhaps the problem is pride. Perhaps we find it too humiliating to be wrong and would rather die than admit to being mistaken. I am sure there are any number of folks willing to oblige us, if that be the case. If you can't admit your mistakes, how can you possibly expect to correct them?

"When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." ~Prov 11:2