No matter whether you're Left or Right, please bear in mind the words of Oliver Cromwell (not my favourite person BTW):
"I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."Try to see why others think the way they do. Try to think about whether some of what they're saying might actually be justified, to however small an extent. Try to look for weaknesses and flaws in your own beliefs.
Then go out and do the best you can. Don't let doubt deter you from doing what you see is right, just be prepared to refine and improve your judgement there. If you demonise all your opponents, you won't recognise the real nasties on the opposite side - or on yours. You can bank on it that in matters great and small, both exist.
Haidt has done some very good work on the psychology of moral intuitions. Go to his home page at the University of Virginia to see what he has done on things like the real differences between progressives and conservatives.
ReplyDelete@Lloyd Flack-
ReplyDeleteInteresting; I'll have to read his paper. Reading some of the surrounding articles, it seems that his Moral Foundations Theory meshes well with my much more limited observations of U.S. Conservatives, if he uses different terminology.