We all have a philosophy or belief system that inform our decision-making, but do we have beliefs that we can actually and logically defend? Most of us hodge-podge together a series of beliefs and don’t even consider whether they are compatible or not. Meaning the logic we use to create or affirm our beliefs sometimes are logically flawed and any conclusions we make from those beliefs is inherently flawed.
Most of us spend our days defending our beliefs rather than our logic. People are innocent or guilty because they are affiliated with a particular political party or a particular philosophy. Republicans are vile and deplorable – greedy men who hate immigrants, foreigners, women, and children. Democrats are evil socialist authoritarians who are trying to take over the world, who kill babies and hate God. None of these are true. They are strawmen and caricatures of people in each of these parties but this is not who most of these people are. I know this because these people are your family, friends, and co-workers, and you know them to be kind and loving.
Yet, this is how we look at them in the scope of the news and make our judgments about their actions. We defend our belief they are “x,y,z” rather than judging them for the evidence of the indictment or charges before them. We need to learn how to put our beliefs aside and come to a “reasonable” judgment that our mind may not let us make while wearing our belief-colored glasses. If you changed the adjective in front of the person would that change your attitude towards them? If the story said, “Black man, or woman, or Republican, or Christian, or Muslim…” Would that affect your judgment?
In the words of Mary Poppins, “The cover is not the book, so open it up and take a look…” Such simple and profound words that we all should take to heart.
