Inquiring Minds Want to Know |
| Articles |
| Sunday, 26 October 2008 19:55 |
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INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW Have you ever wondered why some people vote the Republican ticket and others follow the liberal message? It could be as simple as “all my friends do” or “it was my dad’s ticket” but more likely there are some fairly deep messages that appeal to the voter’s intrinsic values or beliefs that are not represented by the other party. Most of us refrain from talking politics unless we’re in the company of like-minded souls, for fear or delving into conflict-ridden waters. But that assumes thatwe’re stuck in the paradigms of labeling people and their beliefs (“tax and spend Democrats” or “money-grubbing Republicans”) rather than wanting to understand more about those basic values that may drive people to vote a certain way. When is the last time you listened to understand the views of your politically-different counterparts, rather than only hearing the words that validated your previously-held opinions of “those people”? It may be challenging to suspend your beliefs that you already know what someone plans to say, before they say it. How else will we as a community, or as a nation, come to grips with the perceived (mostly exaggerated) differences that may seriously threaten our culture, economy and social welfare? |
