What is wrong with you people?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Jonathan Haidt TED Talk

I just found this today, I'm so glad!

To anyone who enjoyed the guy's essay, here he takes 19 minutes to beautifully lay out his thinking on moral psychology and how it relates to liberal vs. conservative.

If you watch this 19 minutes you will never ask "What is wrong with you people" again. You'll know what's wrong -- and you'll be amazed to find that you are wrong, too, and that every culture in earth's history is proof of it.

Try it, you'll like it!

That...was...awesome. I've been thinking about social controls a lot lately. At work, I see what happens to kids when their parents slide into the garden of evil, but I also see the result of punishing the underclass. Moral Humility, catch it. I'm ready to take the nonpartisan pledge now.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Griff

That...was...awesome. I've been thinking about social controls a lot lately. At work, I see what happens to kids when their parents slide into the garden of evil, but I also see the result of punishing the underclass. Moral Humility, catch it. I'm ready to take the nonpartisan pledge now.

I'm not *smiles*. I am however ready to step outside of the matrix from time to time to remind myself of the whole. We need both 'sides' active in politics in order to forge the society we've forged. If nobody is prepared to set themselves into one side or the other and fight for their vision of society's future, it will lead to a kind of political stagnation. We need th partisan as we need the nonpartisan.

[Griff]

Right now in America society can't afford the partisanship. Britain has its symbolic center of loyalty in the Royal Family. We had it in the Presidency, but the Clinton / Bush years have dissolved those bonds. Our flag has been missused to the point that it is practically a symbol of GOP loyalty rather than national. Obama gives us a chance to reclaim the office for all Americans, because he is smart enough to recognize the truths buried in the arguments of the other. A highly partisan Congress of his own party may be his biggest anti-unity problem. McCain could do well with a Democratic Congress, but the Palin one heart be away issue is kinda scarey.

A great worry right now is a protracted legal battle after the election. Voting is kind of like a national sacrament. Destroy its sanctity and we've got chaos.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Griff

Right now in America society can't afford the partisanship.

But I have not seen any evidence that it is going to get better soon. As I have said in other threads, I believe this election will be a landslide win by Obama or a thread bare win by McCain. Both results continue to divide the country on many levels. If Pelosi, Obama, Reid, et. al. are able to push through the majority of changes they have proposed we will see a similar backlash in 4 or 8 years and things will most likely swing back the other way again. Wash and repeat. The conservatives and liberals in this country will never see eye-to-eye. And it has been evident to me that with each defeat of one or the other the loser becomes more entrenched and rabid.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

But I have not seen any evidence that it is going to get better soon. As I have said in other threads, I believe this election will be a landslide win by Obama or a thread bare win by McCain. Both results continue to divide the country on many levels. If Pelosi, Obama, Reid, et. al. are able to push through the majority of changes they have proposed we will see a similar backlash in 4 or 8 years and things will most likely swing back the other way again. Wash and repeat. The conservatives and liberals in this country will never see eye-to-eye. And it has been evident to me that with each defeat of one or the other the loser becomes more entrenched and rabid.

The question for me is will Pelosi and Reid take orders? What some folks see as an aloofness or superiority in Obama, I recognize as confidence and understanding. Hopefully, the Dems don't break the magic 60 barrier in the Senate.