For your own good...?

I recently... (or maybe it's been longer than I think it has...) had a conversation with someone about politics. If I remember correctly, the issue was that I seem like a pretty liberal person but my political ideas didn't seem to match up... That is, I wasn't planning on voting Democrat this year... Or anytime in the foreseeable future. In any case, as this conversation went on, I said that I thought that, in general, people are smart enough to be able to make their own decisions about life. This was met with a very emphatic, "I don't!"

And I realized something... I read somewhere that 95% of Americans think they are "better than average drivers." Now, we ALL know that isn't true... and we all think that we are the better driver. So, what's wrong here? Well, what's wrong is that no one ever thinks that their opinion is wrong. If you did, then there would be no point in having that opinion. What's more, people think that whatever they think is right, is right for everyone else. This person felt that everyone should live the way they thought was the right way to live. The problem with that thinking is that even if you start from a passionately liberal point of view, you destroy all your idealism when you decide that other people need to be forced to do the same. You end up in a fascist/totalitarian mindset. Every passionate liberal I know makes the same logical error. They complain about the crazy, Christian, right-wing, Republican nuts telling them how they ought to live... and then turn around and start making their own crazy, atheistic, left-wing, Democrat demands. And just like their adversaries on the opposite end of the spectrum they claim a moral high-ground because of their intentions. Personally, I don't care if your trying to save my soul, or the planet... don't try to tell me how to live my life.

In my experience, people are all about the same intelligence. One person might do better in math or history or art or welding or sales... but average it all out and everyone's more evenly stacked than they like to think. People are certainly capable of being stupid in any given situation without notice. I have committed more atrocities in the war against stupidity than I care to remember... and so has everyone else. Your emotions get in the way, a bad night's sleep, a bad experience. Almost anything can blind you from the truth without warning.

OK, before I give you the wrong impression, I'm not saying that everyone's opinion is right and there are no "wrong answers." There are definitely wrong answers. I'm not trying to pull relativity or moral relativity on you. Einstein's Relativity does not say that anyway, no matter what you read on a Starbucks cup. What I'm saying is that something might seem like the right answer given your circumstances. Relativity makes things seem to be true. You have to constantly reevaluate the data you're receiving. Is it false? Is it partial? Is it misleading? Hypothesize, test, evaluate, repeat. The scientific method.

Remember the old saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions?" Well, it's true. More pain, suffering, terror and loss have been inflicted on the world under the guise of saving it than has been by actual evil. Think for yourself is only half the answer... the rest is to let others think for themselves as well.