Don’t end up becoming a political hypocrite

One of the most embarrassing things to experience has to be getting caught in the act of hypocrisy – leading someone on with the pretense of one belief, moral or ethic and actually believing in another.

This is more prevalent nowadays as the majority of society flocks to the Internet blogs and political talk shows for their news. This results in people only getting a myopic view of the political spectrum and, usually, only a view that is similar to their own.

Thus, with increasingly polarized political views that are not as well informed, it becomes more embarrassing when one is “outed” for having political beliefs contrary to their political label.

A key example to this is the back of a car I saw recently that had seemingly opposing bumper stickers: one had a picture of Obama on it and said, “Does this ass make my car look big?” and the other said, “Legalize the Constitution.”

On the surface this seems to be, at the least, not in conflict if not downright supportive of one another, as the former sticker declares the owner of the car as a political conservative and the latter sticker as a statement of support for the basis of the U.S government. However, upon deeper examination of the most famous part of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, it seems that the two statements are indeed at odds.

The Bill of Rights, and therefore the Constitution, are provisions by the U.S. government that guarantee a set of liberal and progressive ideas. Among these ideas are that citizens of this country are entitled to freedom of speech and religion, the right to bear arms, trial by jury and the due process of law and protection from excessive bail.  However, this apparently conservative fellow is praising a liberal and progressive set of ideas, which on the surface seems odd.

Maybe another example would be helpful. This one is personal, involving my father.  He was raised as a conservative by his parents and has professed a loyalty to conservative ideals. However, when engaged in political discussion, my father unknowingly seems to hold more liberal ideas, at least with regard to issues such as elimination of tax cuts for the über-wealthy and implementing gun control laws. However, if I were to tell him that these are liberal stand-bys, he would still claim that he’s conservative.

So, in the interest of having a more, pun unintended, politically correct populace, I have devised a few suggestions.

The first and foremost would be for people to reach their political beliefs and political label on their own. Instead of looking for a narrow niche of beliefs and ideas, people ought to expose themselves to myriad different ideas and choose the ones that appeal to them. If I had a dollar for everyone I’ve met that believed in only certain ideas, beliefs or morals because their parents or elders influenced them, I’d be a rich man.
That leads to my next suggestion: Don’t let other people dictate what you believe in. I realize the inherent irony of me telling you not to listen to what other people tell you to do or believe, but bear with me, here. The idea behind this parallels my aforementioned suggestion in that you should be solely responsible for your beliefs, morals and ethics.

My last suggestion is more of a call to action. I charge you, dear readers, to immerse yourself in a bevy of new ideas. Okay, maybe not immerse – but, take some time to read a blog about an opposing idea to your own and stop to consider those advocates’ point of view and their arguments. Even if you aren’t persuaded, at the very least you’ll be more educated on the matter.

I hope that my musings and suggestions will ring a bell or elucidate a light bulb in your minds. The world is full of diverse and interesting ideas, most of which are at your fingertips with the help of the Internet. I merely ask you to try out some different ideas or beliefs for a change, and see where your head is after that. You might be surprised at what you find.