Sunday, July 26, 2009

Understanding Obama is understanding America

http://www.openleft.com/diary/14354/blended-spacesmaking-sense-of-partial-perceptions-of-obama

You can always see how people are much more liberal on policy than what gets enacted.

One of my bigger realizations in life was the idea that leaders are generally average representatives of their constituents. People excuse corruption, immorality, and stupidity in their leaders because they feel they would do about the same job while in office. There is no point in trying to get someone better if you don't feel that that person exists.

Republicans like Sarah Palin pretty accurately reflect their voters.

Thus the liberal policy beliefs are beliefs in the best possible plan being enacted. However people don't believe that will happen. They believe that an about average policy will be enacted.

My view is that the mob almost always drives the leader. Read shooting an elephant by George Orwell for a summation of that.

Once you reject the idea of a noble oppressed populace repeatedly electing people who lie and oppress them you gain a greater understanding of the world and in this case Obama.

Now that is an argument that basically people elected the leader that they wanted. Any lying,pursuit of individual power,selfishness, etc are about what people expect of their leaders and they would not trust anyone who didn't show these traits.

Now Paul frequently makes the argument that Republicans are crazy. I think though he doesn't really understand why they are crazy.

The answer to that is rather simple. They are crazy because they were abused as children. When a conservative looks out on the world they see potential abusers. When a liberal looks out on the world they see potential helpers. Because they were helped as children.

Now the rather unusual nature of Obama is that he gets that. In his grandmother he both saw the person who raised him and helped him so much and also someone who was afraid of black men. He saw people as both potential abusers and helpers.

Now what does all of this say about Obama? It says that his primary goal has always been about spiritual healing rather than physical healing. He doesn't want to fight the oppressors. He wants to heal them.

If you look at things from a strictly policy perspective you will never understand Obama because his primary goal has never been a policy goal. It has been exactly what he was saying all along. He wants to bring people together.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

I tend to be a quiet person

I made a comment over at http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/07/11/ad-hominems-etc/ that made me understand some of my issues.

I think the part of most people's brains that deal with rules and norms of society for me is devoted to abstract thought.

I made a post that I thought was fairly innocent and it did not turn out to provide what I expected.

I simply don't have the emotional triggers that most people have. I don't get disgusted easily (it has to have smells or deal with eyes for the most part). I identify with this study http://www.livescience.com/culture/090604-conservative-disgust.html As a child that caused me a lot of issues because I had a harder time judging what other people would be disgusted by.

That's probably why I have such trouble with that blog. It makes an extra effort to be sensitive to all the things that I have trouble with.

But I also have trouble in fairly normal spaces. The office, or even places that don't take offense easily. That causes me to be really fearful of talking or interacting with other people. Likewise I have an extreme amount of trouble controlling my emotions and that also makes people feel uncomfortable.

I don't easily understand what is extremely offensive or what is not very offensive to most people.

Though I do have some emotional triggers. If someone implies that I am a man I have a similar reaction.

My wife I felt instantly comfortable around which is the exact opposite of how I feel around most people. Not because she is like me because she isn't. But she does appreciate my sense of humor.

Hopefully in the future this realization will make it easier for me to logically think in those situations where I tend to be overcome with fear. Then I can focus on being more bland an inoffensive and not being so fearful of bland conversations.

Edit: update Interestingly enough the next link I looked at on that site was http://actsoffaithinloveandlife.blogspot.com/2009/07/leaving-damaged-beyond-recognition.html which was about a similar issue. Which points to the fact that you have to make things bland enough for the entire community.