Every politician, drug lord and suicide bomber has ideological drives, perhaps similar in intensity. We all need a box to stuff our reality; it simplifies things and offers predetermined explanations for why anything happens.
I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t cast absolute blame on X politician and Y Average Joe in my head; my set of flawed worldviews gives me direction and comfort about all that’s complicated in my life. And the little things: That guy who dangerously cut me off the other day was riding a motorcycle — insert my opinion on bikers’ traffic habits here.
I’m as guilty as the next guy of sticking to my sheltered paradigm of the world. But I’d like to see more of us get past our comfort zones and avoid intellectual complacency.
If you lean left, watch Fox News, and if you hate that kid who asks the most ridiculous questions in lecture, consider that maybe he’s all right and just failing to market himself in a social setting.
Ideologies can be useful. For instance, I have ideological thought patterns about how to make six figures. So when a former ASU student told me he was getting rich through a sketchy pay-to-play marketing job, I instantly dismissed the idea as bogus. No logic necessary; his story didn’t fit my preconceived notions about making $100,000 per year.
But uncertainty dominates. Here are a few reasons to temporarily abandon everything that’s important to you when considering the big picture:
• Torture: In the war on terror, we need to inhumanely brutalize certain prisoners — mostly scum who deserve it anyway — to prevent another Sept. 11. Or, torture is unconstitutional and unethical; other techniques are more effective; and it’s damaging our interests and recruiting terrorists.
• Abortion: Its legality is allowing the slaughter of millions of innocents, similar to the Holocaust. That, or depriving women of the right to choose violates one of the most fundamental human rights — fetuses are just tissue.
• The New American University: To keep this country competitive, universities need to embrace a radical new university model, à la President Crow’s vision. ASU has to be a progressive, top research University, yet paradoxically admit all qualified applicants. But, perhaps, ASU is like a giant zombie bank: overly bureaucratic and too big to fail, inefficient and full of delusions of grandeur. ASU has monopolized higher education in a huge metro area and is wasting precious resources during a recession.
Those viewpoints, obviously not fully inclusive, are all backed by strong evidence. But we need to recognize the underlying reasons for whatever we’re thinking.
I like to believe ASU is great and everyone should have access to higher education, and that’s partially because I love college life and all things related. But that is logically flawed, because my life story can hardly be applied to anyone else. And someone who loathes ASU’s goals and strategies might have ideological convictions about taxes and the size of government.
Confidence is crucial to success and weighing all the possibilities behind a decision can drive you insane. Conversely, it’s nice to remember that reality is so complex on a philosophical and practical level that anything we ever believe is somehow technically wrong. I know, this column, too — it’s a legitimate and self-defeating argument.
Reach Matt at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.
