There can be more than one earnest and sincere approach to a happier and safer world and reasonable people can disagree on what the best route is. There's no reason to disparage the motives of the competition simply because they are competition. Their judgment, maybe, but not their motives.
Labels (Liberal, Conservative, etc) are fine. They are useful. Without these labels, it would be very difficult to have an intelligent discussion.
The problem with labels is that we are still at the early stages of labeling things. All these labels are human constructs. Nature is much more complex than the simple labels that we put on them.
Sure for now, these labels represent the heights of human intelligence. We can pat ourselves on our backs because of how we understand how one label is far superior to another label.
Justice Antonio Scalia is a prime example of an egomaniac who thinks he has a greater grasp of labels than anyone else. And, chances are he does have a better grasp than most anyone else.
But, the problem is that none of these labels work. One label does not fit all. Some of these labels probably produce a lot of evil (does more harm than good).
We are not anywhere near the perfect label. The ultimate unifying theory of life. Until then we have to just cobble together things that work and hopefully one day, we will have enough information to come up with a more unifying theory of how life works or should work.
But, if there is anything that we should know, we should know that by trying to fit all situations into one of our primitive labels is probably quite foolish.
It's like when you are standing over someone and you can save that persons life, but you don't because it does not fit the label. That is foolish.
The best that you can say is that more situations are going to be solved by this label than an even more primitive label that someone else believes in.
There is no label out there now that is going to win the hearts and minds of a majority of people.
There is probably still some dispute that E=MC2, but for the most part people agree. And, things work out that way.
In the same way, when a philosophy that really rings true, most people will agree.
The solution right now is not at hand. The unifying label has still to be defined. |
