As I continue to engage in discussion – mostly but not exclusively political – I consistently run up against the same contention: that I am mistaken simply because I am young and naïve, and that I will learn and eventually get things right as I become older. Even though I do not subscribe to the notion that age inherently carries wisdom, I do think that a person should try to learn and improve over the course of his (or her) life. I don’t think that this sense of self-education necessarily implies change, but can instead take the form of refinement.
On the most basic level, I have never taken kindly to the suggestion that I am just young and naïve because it seems like the worst possible explanation for why I might be wrong. That said, if I do change how I feel and look at the world, I would like to have a clear image of how I saw things before those changes. I want to do the best I can to record what things are important to me and how I feel about them at this point at my life, if only so I can have a way of knowing how I used to feel.
Naturally, this will be incredibly hard for me to write, and will undoubtedly vary regularly between thoughts that are lucid, thoughts that are incomplete, and thoughts that seem egotistical or pretentious. I would prefer a consistently coherent piece that doesn’t sound as if I am trying represent myself as smarter or better than others (or as smarter or better than I really am), but that is unlikely to happen. I am too self-conscious to write without ego or without some attempt, however underlying or unintended, to make myself seem a certain way.
That is the first thing that I believe, and that makes this process understandably imperfect. Perhaps that is the way it should be. I can say, however, that the only person I expect to agree with everything I believe is me. This is not meant to be argumentative or coercive but declarative and informative. I cannot promise that it will be engaging, but I can promise that it will be as true as possible.
I believe that what you believe in does not matter nearly as much as why you believe it. With some obvious exceptions, I think that almost anything can be believed for the right reason(s). I believe that thinking this way helps you to understand issues more clearly and, perhaps more importantly, respect those with whom you disagree. Because of this, however, I never assume that I truly believe in the same things as someone who superficially supports the same “positions” that I do.
I believe that people are good. I have to remind myself of this sometimes, and I have not always felt this way, but I believe it nevertheless. I am not convinced that humans will “make it” in the end – whatever that might mean – but if we fail it won’t be for lack of trying or because individuals are not good enough.
I also believe that people are supposed to take care of each other. What comes before and after life is a mystery, and all we have during our time is one another. This, to me, is why being alone can also be very painful.
I believe that the hardest thing any person can do is realize that other people are as complicated as you are. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that the person in the car next to you at a red light is more than an extra in the movie of your life, but I think that it’s important to recognize that even the most random passerby has an entire world inside of them. I also find it much easier to be happy and nice if you honestly believe that the people around you are not just cardboard cutouts.
I believe that people are better, more valuable, and more important than animals. I also believe that people should be stewards of the Earth, including the animals on it. I have a great amount of respect for most vegetarians, but I don’t know how to react to people who argue that animal life is somehow worth more than human life.
I believe that Akira Kurosawa’a The Seven Samurai is the best film I’ve ever seen. I believe that Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is the best book I’ve ever read. I believe that Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is the best album I’ve ever heard. I believe that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the best video game I’ve ever played.
I believe that it’s important to inject a little levity into supposedly serious proceedings.
I believe that the people who shout the loudest and the longest – especially when their message doesn’t change – often have the least to add to any conversation that might improve your life or the world.
I believe that American history is a narrative, and the recurring theme is this: people with varying degrees of imperfection doing what they can to make what they believe is a better nation. As much as we debate about John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, or Abraham Lincoln, the absolutely irrefutable threads that run between them are that all three were only men and all three made mistakes. All three were also brilliant, and that’s what makes their humanity and mistakes so hard.
I believe that Abraham Lincoln is the single greatest figure in American history. His view of the American Union, which my professor William Campbell often referred to as “mystical,” is the ideal to which we should continue to aspire. I believe that there is no limit to what we can continue to learn from what he did, said, wrote, and thought.
I believe that patriotism has nothing to do with American flag lapel pins, American flag t-shirts, or American flag car stickers. The greatest American patriots of the past didn’t wear American flag neckties or bandanas, and recognized that the American flag was not a design or a logo but a flag. I believe that the fact that the flag on US Army uniforms is less than three inches square tells us something.
I believe that a place with more guns is more dangerous than a place with less guns. I have never felt safer knowing that I am in a room with someone who is carrying a gun, legally or otherwise. I know that the world can be a dangerous place, but I don’t feel that it is made safer in any way by ordinary citizens using their own guns as a crime deterrent or as would-be vigilantes. I also think that while my understanding of the Constitution is amateur and incomplete at best, the average, now-accepted reading of the Second Amendment is essentially senseless.
I believe too little government is often a bigger threat to America’s continued providence than too much government. I believe that faith in the free market implies a belief in business as an overwhelmingly benevolent institution that even hard-line socialists do not possess about the government. Or, to quote Chuck Warnock, I believe that “Free markets will not self-regulate and reward noble purposes because we cannot assume good will by the majority toward the minority.” A United States operating without government regulation scares me and is not a place where I would ever want to live.
I believe that an inordinate percentage of people who consider themselves to be “pro-life” don’t seem to care enough about the lives of people who have already been born. The fact that there are people who are simultaneously pro-life, pro-war, and pro-death penalty defies any form of logic as I understand it.
I believe that there should be a wall of separation between church and state. I believe that a statue of the Ten Commandments in an American courthouse is an affront to the things our nation stands for. While we may argue about whether or not the founding fathers were personally religious, the documents they painstakingly crafted to describe the nation they wanted were and are, in my mind, clearly against an institutionally religious nation.
I believe that the people who are involved in the “tea party” movement know nothing about American history, the founding fathers, the Constitution, the Boston Tea Party, or contemporary politics on any level.
I believe that those who insist that there is a liberal bias in the media and academia understand little about what liberalism and bias are or what actually goes on in the media and in academia.
I believe that the people who say things like “those who can’t do, teach” have an inexplicable disrespect for those who have devoted their lives to helping make children and adolescents into intelligent, functioning members of society. Those people undoubtedly owe a tremendous amount to the teachers they have had, and why they choose to ignore that is something I do not understand.
I believe that it is wrong to disparage the role that art plays in defining a society and what it holds as important or valuable. I think that there is no limit to what we can learn about who we are and who we used to be by understanding what art tells us about what individuals and cultures are/were invested in. Because of this, I also believe that is wrong to disrespect the study of art as somehow unimportant or useless because what it produces is not necessarily tangible or marketable.
I believe that just because a person is an observer rather than a participant does not mean that his (or her) commentary on or criticism of a topic is inherently bunk. There would be little meaningful discourse in the world if only actors and directors could review movies or if only players and coaches could analyze basketball. And while actually doing something can provide a certain perspective that observing or studying often cannot, I believe that the perspective it provides is not the only one that is valuable or meaningful.
I believe that I am indescribably lucky and that I recognize my luck and how much I have to be thankful for. I believe that I am a good person, and I hope that I can become a great person.
Finally, I believe that I would not be shocked to find out that I am an alien. It would explain a lot of things.
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