After going to law school, my knowledge of law
gives my legal opinion more credibility. After going to medical school, my medical opinion
has more weight than a layman’s opinion. Yet I could
study politics my whole life and my opinion
will always be conflated with casual opinion.
They say, “Well, that’s just your opinion.”.
On a certain level, political ideology is based very much on opinion.
Do you favor austerity or charity? Do you favor justice or mercy?
These fundamental philosophical questions don’t have clear answers
because of this many assume politics is completely based on opinion. There is a foundation of knowledge and introspection that must be built to functionally manifest the desires of your political ideology.
Therefore, one must determine a clear ideology
based on logic and reasoning.
One must take time to intellectually determine their priorities
and vision for the world.
Otherwise, one is unprepared for political discussion.
If one is unprepared for discussion
they’ll probably obfuscate the discourse.
My current president, Donald Trump, is a perfect example of not developing an ideology. All of his views are reactionary so it’s difficult to know his stance on any given topic. While allowing for more potential flexibility, this has negative impacts like adding needless chaos to the stock market and general uncertainty in the minds of foreign leaders less willing to conduct diplomatic action.
A former presidential candidate, Ron Paul, is a perfect example of developing an ideology. I generally know how president Paul would act; with Austrian economics and libertarianism in mind. If I agree with these concepts more than any other candidate’s, I’d feel comfortable defending his opinions because they’re concretely based in well defined political theories. This can have negative impacts when you’re ideology becomes so rigid compromise becomes impossible; I get the feeling Ron Paul would shoot the economy in the foot out of a blind faith in the free market.
Your ideology shouldn’t be as loose as Trump’s
or as stubborn as Paul’s
but it’s a good idea to know what your ideology is.
Not knowing your ideology puts you in high risk
of shouting reactionary nonsense
or not participating at all.
If you believe in God, it is your duty to participate. If you hope for the evolution of humanity, it is your duty to participate. All that is asked of you is to clearly understand your opinions and your arguments for your belief in them and keep an open mind. This may seem simple but there’s plenty of people who simply react to whatever happens to be going on and conflate other well developed highways with their dirt road.
They say, “Well, that’s just your opinion.”
Opinions are like *******, they’re usually ****** and nobody wants to be told how to clean theirs up, myself included. Most people live pretty clean lives anyway, but once I start to smell ******* I show them my opinion.