We are shaped by what we think. What we think is directly influenced by what we read, listen to and watch. So the environmental factors we choose, define our thinking. What does that mean?
As we are growing up, most of us have some reflection of our parents’ thinking. It might be a direct reflection, “Oh, Dad thinks X, so I’ll think X” or an opposing reflection, “I’ll think Y then.’ But as we mature we start to be influenced by friends, teachers and the media. If we lean slightly one way or the other – conservative or liberal to use the common terms, we may start to listen to Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken (in his radio days) and then we begin to adapt what we like or shudder as we think, oh, no, that’s just wrong.
So we gravitate towards people we tend to agree with, and that’s a normal thing. But if you get into the trap of “group think” then things start to go awry. Suddenly ALL you are listening to is Rush and the people he recommends. You can exclude those whose opinion differs and begin to classify them as ‘the enemy’ or think of them as stupid.
I was talking to a friend about Ellen Goodman, the ‘liberal’ columnist, and she said to me, I stopped reading her because I agreed with everything she was saying. It wasn’t challenging my beliefs, so what do I get out of reading it. Most people never get to that point. If you are nodding every time you read something, or hear something, you aren’t growing.
If you automatically shut off if Rush is on, you are denying any possibility that he’s right about anything. This is the danger zone. We all have to realize that the labels of conservative and liberal are too vague. Most of us have elements of both within us. I believe in small government staying out of my business, but that business also includes reproductive options. I believe we should ‘save the whales’ but I also think guns don’t kill people, people kill people. (Guns sometimes aid in that, but if you want to kill, you can figure out a way.) Start reading things you don’t agree with, and step out of your shoes and think about the other person’s perspective.
