My first post at Donklephant.

Here.

Comments

[GN]

Good post, Amba, and a good place for your ideas and observations.

[realpc]

I also converted 90 degrees, not 180. Seeing the faults in liberal or progressive reasoning does not require becoming a conservative. But like you, I gradually began to appreciate some of the basic conservative ideas.
I grew up immersed in liberal philosophy, always assuming it was the obvious truth. Conservatives were just people who had never questioned the assumptions they were raised with. Well guess what, we were doing exactly the same thing.

Eventually I started to wonder how people could have such different beliefs. They "other side" was obviouly not all crazy or stupid or evil, so maybe there were reasons for some of their ideas. And I was a naturally religious person in spite of my secular upbringing, so I could not assume that religion was merely ignorant superstition.

One major turning point was when I started to learn about systems theory and information theory, in the course of getting a counseling degree. I had never heard of the ideas before -- it opened completely new, and reasonable, ways of seeing politics, and everything else. I realized everything depends on dynamic balance. Natural systems evolve by building new ideas on the foundation of the old -- so society obviously has to balance traditionalism and progress. It isn't a question of being a traditionalist OR a progressive -- evolution and sanity depend on balancing both.

I went on to get a PhD in cognitive linguistics, based on those ideas. All of our communication exists in the context of the encompassing evolving culture. Each new idea is processed within the framework of our previous ideas. Whether it's a personal relationship or a political movement, communication works the same way, reaching from old ideas to new ones. Communication and society are inherently creative, but this creativity depends on being grounded in tradition.

The other major factor was Intelligent Design which is related to the above. Natural systems are inherently creative and evolving; systems theory and Intelligent Design are part of the same non-reductionist worldview. I never heard it called Intelligent Design until recently, but it's the same theory. I was not a bit surprised to see the liberals making contemptuous remarks about ID. Of course they would misunderstand, since they have never learned to question reductionism.

Since learning about holistic philosophy and related ideas, and then reading Sheldrake's A New Science of Life, my whole way of thinking changed. Since then I have learned a lot more, but all of it seems to fit into the holistic framework. I feel I can make sense out of things in ways I could not before.

Before the internet, I thought I was the only one connecting science, spirituality and politics in this way. Of course now I know there are lots of us. We may disagree on many things, but the spiritual holistic foundation is probably similar.

[meade]

Used to consider myself a conservative until the civil rights movement and Vietnam helped push me toward liberal. But Sept. 11 and all that was then revealed of the left - the antiAmericanism, malignant narcissism, and Jew-hating (just to name a few of its many diseases) - pushed me back to the center. I now consider myself a true Conversative - willing to oppose anything wrong - left or right - on moral principle, with a strong need to talk it over, fearless in the face of ambiguities and typos.

[ldh]

Hello everybody, I want to make friend with you. Nice to meet you.

[Melinda]

Congratulations on your first Donklephant post!

"90 degree turn." Yeah, perfect.

[ldh]

Hello everybody, I want to make friend with you. Nice to meet you.

[Pooh]

Meade,

Jew-hating on the left? I see this formulation from time to time and am always confused by what is meant.

[meade]

Pooh,

For example

(via Richard Lawrence Cohen)

[Pooh]

Eww.

Not to be difficult, but I'm not convinced that "The Left" is more or less anti-semitic than the right. (And I wonder if you take it out of the context of circumcision, bound to be something of a hot-button, whether you get anything approaching the virulence shown there)

Maybe I just haven't experienced it first hand (except from my old boss, but he was just an out and out ass, regardless of political persuasion).