At first, it was an exploration into Perspective. Listening to viewpoints of divergent philosophy, I learned these ideologies are the filter through which ‘reality’ shapes itself. It doesn’t matter what the event is, any particular point-of-view interprets the meaning and solutions according to its basic premise of belief. At first, intrigued by what the fundamental concepts of each ideology were, I listened to the dialogues on cable TV news to learn.
Then, I wondered if the discussion between different perspectives – say liberal and conservative – ever influenced each other to evolve. That, I speculated, would be the value of all the discourse I watched. Over time, I realized that – not only did dialogues not shift through discussion – they actually grew so repetitive I could fill in the words myself by using the catchy phrases and pithy rhetoric that each side of an issue relies upon to elaborate their position.
Indeed, the only changing variable I noted was the emotional tone. From even-handed to sarcastic and all the way to outraged, politicians and pundits alike seemed to vary their speeches in feeling volume rather than development of concepts. I came to the conclusion that an evolution of substance could only come through stepping out beyond the ideologies and their limitations of bias. Continue reading “I’ve Been Watching Politics”