Where do people's ideological instincts come from?
It seems to me that people divide pretty clearly along various faultlines, for reasons which have little do do with rational argument. These divisions come from somewhere deeper, they are gut feelings.
One division which has recently been on my mind is between those who think that nothing can fundamentally change except through authority, and those who think that the involvement of authority prevents fundamental change. I am definitely of the former camp, but I know plenty of people in the latter. We could all give good examples supporting either position, but the evidence isn't enough, since in such a complex issue neither belief can be entirely true. Nevertheless, we persist in our beliefs and will always come down on our preferred side.
I am tempted to believe that these positions stem from our upbringing and early life experiences, and that is why they rarely change even over periods of years. But Adam raised an interesting point: is it possible to strongly believe something, to be deeply committed to it (e.g. the principle of equality) and yet to also believe that your commitment to it comes not from intellectual investigation (bringing one to the conclusion that the position is right or true), but is merely a side effect of one's upbringing?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I like the theory of the brain's left hemisphere as the narrator, making up plausible stories to account for feelings that well up from deeper in the brain. As long as the story matches the feeling we don't need to ask which came first.
Personally I find myself swinging between the two: in considering a change of 'career' I am torn between doing something Important through a large organisation, and doing something counterculturally important outside of those boundaries (with attached bohemian lifestyle and lack of suits etc.)
Post a Comment