Right and Wrong

Politics....Religion....Opinions and Beliefs. Aside from the need to find meaning in life, to find guidance, to create social order and cultures, people have the need to be right. We feel good when we make a choice that turns out to be what we consider to be right. What makes that even better is if someone else was wrong. It's human nature to be a little smug. We may not want to admit it. We may know that it is lacking in compassion and selflessness, but we feel it none-the-less. And it feels good. What's really great is if a whole bunch of people make a choice that proves a whole bunch of other people wrong. Then we can feel smug together. We can talk about it. We can forget all of those times when we were wrong and they were right. It's all about the now. We all know that there cannot be two right answers or choices. There can be only one. There can be only one "Best". All others are merely silver or bronze or less. What works for me is what should work for everyone. If that were true, there would be one brand of car, one hairstyle, one TV channel, and one kind of music. Let the music play. Listen to the music you like, drive the car you choose, cut or don't cut your hair however you like, and pray or don't pray to whom or whatever you want. Just don't expect me to do the same.

Am I right!?

I think I'm getting the hang of this blogging thing. I actually wrote three posts last year! I guess winter is my introspection and need to get it written down on something but probably not facebook time.

Recent events and world reactions to them have made me ponder religion again. I've been reading up on Pat Robertson and his agenda after hearing that he feels the Haitians deserved this disaster due to their allegiance with the devil. Aside from a few very obviously propaganda-style re-tellings of a rumor about the Haitians pact with the devil in 1791 to get the French out, and the other propaganda-style rumors that the Haitian government re-affirmed their satanic allegiance in 1991, I can not find any factual accounts of this taking place. Hmmm... Human nature seems to be that when something bad happens to someone you don't like, it is easy to take that opportunity to shout from the rooftops how it served them right. Just like the Nazis justified the holocaust, just like countless Africans have been slaughtered, beaten, imprisoned, etc... in the name of "You are different than us and we fear you so much that we must, in good faith, destroy you!" We humans are a long way off from the age of enlightenment. We're still tribal, xenophobic, paranoid, and possessive as a group.

One thing I know for sure is that if I am certain beyond a doubt about something, I'm probably wrong and in need of further research... This I know without a doubt...