I need to learn to disagree nicely. It would be nice to be able to stop apologizing for hurting feelings. On the other hand, it all happens so fast that I’m having a hard time evaluating what exactly goes wrong. Honestly, I don’t know where to go from here unless it’s just to keep quiet.
This video isn’t meant to defend my point of view or bash the other point of view so much as to present and question this general polarization as it’s playing out between friends and families all over the nation. I mean, we both think we’re right. We’re adamant. We won’t change each others’ minds. We’re just rubbing lime juice and salt in each others’ paper cuts at the moment, instead of more sensibly mixing margaritas and toasting each others’ health.
So I’m calling myself out on the insanity of the discussion. Repeating the same actions and expecting different results.
What can I learn here?
Subscribe with iTunes
PS: The video that brought this on is available on YouTube. It happened months ago.
Chuck likes this
this is great Cheryl. I love the closeup & black & white. it’s arty, personal & political at the same time
One of the issues as I see it, is that people are afraid to talk with each other. That and we all tend to think we are “right”. But it’s not just a left and right issue, because at the end of the day someone, somewhere is trying to get you to think they way they do. It’s a viscous cycle that seems doomed to repeat itself over and over…
When I was in New York, I was talking with Charles Hope and Grace Piper and one of the things I said is that I think one of the greatest barriers to getting along is Diversity training, in it’s current form. The reason I say that is that almost all diversity training focuses on the difference’s we have, I mean one of the motto’s is “Celebrate Diversity”….when we focus on the things that make us different that is all we see. I think that we should focus on the things that make us the same, then the differences don’t seem so bad….but then again I am crazy….
I really liked the video Cheryland it’s funny that I did something similar today before I even knew you had done yours….
Some copy and some innovate. You’re innovating Cheryl. I prefer those that create rather than copy. You are a keeper. Those that copy are quickly tossed aside. You’ve done well with this. Very, very well.
Never apologize for what you believe and think Cheryl. Sure, it may cause strife. We can’t please everyone. What’s life without a little controversy though? Rather boring.
Keep believing.
@heath – great minds think alike of course.
@David – yeah. I’m definitely not apologizing for what I believe/think, just for my delivery, because I hurt the feelings of someone I care for even though we disagree politically. I’d like to be able to disagree in a more civil way.
In a world that is all to often looked at as black or white, we all need to live in the gray area.
Great video.
Politics is emotion. There is no rationality there. We fall in love with ideas, they become part of our core identity, and we spend the rest of our lives gathering whatever evidence we can find to support our point of view. I’ve just started to ignore my parents’ political views, for instance, because them choosing to believe those things on the most selective of evidence is what makes them feel like sentient free-thinking individuals. And choosing to think differently from them is what makes me feel the same. Amy’s bound to turn out to be a Conservative MP or a bond trader
There’s just no point in falling out over crazy things other people think – particularly about politics – because in the end it doesn’t matter whether Gordon Brown is corrupt or Barack Obama is Muslim or man-made global warming is a hoax. Them believing that doesn’t make any difference. Nor does my believing the opposite. It’s all just a mass of emotion with a thin crust of reason around it. And none of that will be changed by argument or ‘facts’ – in fact, it just reinforces their position. In the end, all you have is love, and the pleasure of choosing to think differently.
(that said, I did get a bang out of giving my dad Dreams From My Father for his birthday this year)
@Ru, You’re right, of course. About the mass of emotion surrounded by a thin crust of reason, and that Amy will probably be a bond trader. But you can rest assured, she’ll still love spinning, no matter what.