"What if I'm Wrong?"
Being a person who attended Catholic schools for 16 years the question above has been the greatest obstacle to making decisions and forming opinions I have ever had to live with. It is, at best, a blessing and a curse (though ultimately much more a blessing). It was a great blessing when I decided to start law school in my late 30s. It's been something of an anchor since I first started practicing law.
Practicing attorneys usually know about conducting research, too many don’t seem to understand the need to also research your opponent’s position. If you find dozens of cases to support your contention that your client should win but don’t look for cases that say the opposite, you will lose sooner or later. Seems pretty straightforward, unfortunately it’s not. While it’s not possible to be a successful litigator if you refuse or otherwise fail to see your opponent’s position, that doesn’t seem to stop the growing threat of volitional ignorance. Worse, even attorneys who are adept at understanding an opponent’s views increasingly do something I’ll never understand, they don’t take their approach to research and objective analysis outside of their practice.
I believe politics has become so divisive because people are increasingly unable or unwilling to even try to understand the perspective of those with whom they disagree. In the cesspool of mindless argument, common courtesy and the genuine desire for truth drown. Instead, we increasingly see almost bare hatred, without so much as a shred of intelligence, leading people to demonize and dehumanize their opponents. It doesn’t really matter who or what one supports if it isn’t the result of genuine due diligence and reasoned analysis. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to happen these days. The result is gross divisions within the US. White v. Black, Left v. Right, Atheists v. Religion and Capitalism v. ANY form of socialism are all symptoms of the same disorder - Critical Thinking Deficiency. (“CTD”).
The only way to defeat CTD is to do two things - research and critical analysis. The levels of this disorder have reached staggering levels as shown by our dueling media outlets. I routinely chuckle (and weep) nearly every time I read one of the mindless posts I see throughout social media. “You’re either with Ukraine or you’re a Nazi,” usually uttered by someone who has never bothered to learn who Stepan Bandera was. They certainly have no idea just how many “Banderites” there are in Ukraine today. While I suspect the vast majority of Ukrainians are not Banderites, the fact that there are enough of them to makeup a large operating military unit should at least give one pause. Add to this noise the refusal of anyone who supports the Blue or Red party to even acknowledge that sometimes the “other” side has a good idea. This is best exemplified by the responses to such an idea. If the Red party says “privatization” and slavish devotion to Capitalism is the right path ahead then the Blue party will claim the exact opposite, at least on paper.
In truth both the Blue and Red party slavishly support Capitalism and, contrary to what they may say publicly, despise labor unions. Indeed, the notion that either one supports labor unions is readily disproven by what they actually do. Given a choice to ensure railroad works were given the ability to live a somewhat normal life OR appease the billionaires who own the railroads, the head of one of the parties openly sided with the owners. Unsurprisingly, the other party’s leaders didn’t so much as whisper opposition to this result. While I have tried to raise my children and, as much as I can, my grandchildren to think critically and raise Truth up as a never-ending goal, the fact I am one of an ever-decreasing minority is absolutely terrifying.
While the need for Truth has never been greater in the US, it’s demise seems inevitable at least until and unless we realize that Truth is paramount for any nation claiming to be an actual Democracy. Ignorance, whether accidental or volitional, is the enemy of Truth and those who embrace it are the greatest enemies of our species. Today, when one inquires as to another’s reasons for holding a particular view the responses are, far too often, ad hominem attacks on the inquirer. Intelligent explanations are nowhere to be found because there was no intelligent, critical analysis of the issue in the first place. This is most readily seen in the literal denial of verifiable facts or dismissal of anything “in the past” as being connected to the present. It’s gotten so bad that I will never again engage others in debate on most social media platforms since it is a complete waste of time and energy. Too many folks on those platforms will almost reflexively spout regurgitated noise from commercial media outlets despite the growing reality that the media is directly owned and OPERATED by oligarchs and their sycophants.
Today, even finding a reliable source for information is quite difficult. While one could once rely on “journalistic independence” as a buffer against falsehoods and outright lies it has all but disappeared in the real world. Objective “News” has been replaced with soundbites advancing the agenda of whoever owns and oversees the news outlet’s “reporting.” While I don’t believe we’ve reached the point of no return when it comes to Truth, we’ve certainly reached a point where failing to correct the myopic focus involved in serving the agenda of a corporate master will doom not only the Truth, but likely our species very survival.