If I never listen and consider opposing views, I become stagnant and far less than I should be if I am to be relevant and/or effective in my calling purpose. Okay, let me unscramble that philosophical belief. I maintain that all have some purpose or some talent, which could and should be applied to some void or need. Before one can make this talent meet some need one must come to 'know thy self.' Who am I as defined by those inner feelings and emotions that stir my interests?
I have resolved 'that' question in my personal life; I know myself! I will re-visit this comment at the end. First, however is this matter of considering opposing voices. I always wanted to hear the other (counter) opinion; never did I feel that I could advance my convictions or achieve coveted goals if I only paid heed to those 'yes' people. The many years that I was a head basketball coach, I created an environment wherein my assistant coaches were encouraged to challenge that which I was doing as the leader; so long as all challenges were made in private. This setting caused me to either abort my plan or find reason for greater commitment to my approach.
Even today, I hold strong liberal/Democrat views on most social issues but I listen to the voices of the ultra-conservatives who oppose those views. Just today, I listened to Conservative talk show personality, Rush Limbaugh as he was making yet another case against President Obama. On the heels of the mass killing of elementary school students in Newtown, CT., Limbaugh states that this is the fourth such mass-murdering event during Obama's Presidency and he surmised, "Obama is averaging one horrific mass murder tragedy per year in office." I suppose we should thus accept the Rush's message that it was and is Obama who allowed or causes these terrible murders.
It is a not a stretch agreeing that Mr. Limbaugh is an individual who regularly delivers comments of animosity/hate towards one political philosophy. May it suffice to say, he (Limbaugh) is never caught advancing reasonable solutions found in Christian teaching or compromise. Limbaugh surely 'knows himself' and he seems to believe that the need of divisive rhetoric is to be his applied talent. Limbaugh's repeated radio hate messages, which started in 1988, have paralleled an annual 7,500 hate crimes in America. Shall we process this data and make a Limbaugh conclusion here?
Okay, I shall acknowledge that any such conclusion predicated on Limbaugh's comments are total poppycock. However, I remain certain that Limbaugh will defend his conclusions on Obama as Gordon Allport* would state and I paraphrase: 'The truly prejudice mind simply changes his wrongly proven beliefs so as to continue supporting his ATTITUDE of hate.'
Oh, the matter of my personal 'know thy self'...I have applied most of my talents and energies to identify and develop programs/methods that celebrate previous accomplishments of people, which gives deserving kudos while establishing standards for newcomers to meet and surpass.
* Gordon Allport, author of 'The Nature of Prejudice'
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