THE MOST BORING PEOPLE TO TALK TO: IDEOLOGUES

Imagine this common scenario: You get invited to an event with your friends and meet them or another friend group; you arrive just expecting to meet new people, have some nice chat, maybe a few drinks, and unwind, but when you arrive, there are one or more people who have already started talking politics and ideologies, “how bad is the orange man”, or “he can do no wrong.”

What do you think? I think that person is not worth talking to, not because I agree or disagree with them, but because it’s always the same story. We have heard their talking point, time and time again, from the media anyway. Unless you are bringing something interesting or original to the table, it is just like watching TV news…

There is nothing wrong with talking about politics or current events, but if everything you talk about descends into “X people are good or Y is bad”, well, that can get redundant and boring. The study of politics is a study of careful nuance and things are much grayer than a lot of these characters or actors make green. In today’s information and technology, era, we are forgetting an important part that makes information into knowledge —- Critical Thinking!

 I do not mean in the sense of the “Critical Race Theory”, which just aims to see everything from the lens of Race and singular groups; I mean actual critical thinking. Asking if what you are hearing is correct, being able to tell yourself, wait a minute, this does not sound right, let us investigate this. Just this component quickly reaches its practitioner that everything in the world is complex and nuanced. Let us look at a few quick examples.

“Communism is evil and nothing good can come of it.”

 We can unequivocally say that Communism, as an ideology, has failed, but we must know this evil” was also what saved us from the “Laissez-Faire Capitalism” Collapse. It was the unions that were born out of this ideology, clashing with the unrestrained capitalism, which gave us 5-week workdays, 40 hours workdays, paid overtime, sick leave, and many other benefits, and workers did not have to risk losing their heads as they did in the French revolution.

A person who says “communism is evil and nothing good can come of it”, is already so indoctrinated, and will not listen to reason; but we must stop or avoid stereotyping people, which many of us do.  We know there are always flaws with the way we are running things. However, if you were to point out a specific issue or concern where you found something wrong but offered alternatives, you would find that people become much more sympathetic and open to your point of view and the discussion can continue, with possibilities of learning from each other and teaching each other.

However, one must realize that having a political discussion or conversation, is an awfully difficult subject. Having the ability to think and the knowledge that prepares one to have a decent political discussion, makes one feel accomplished and complete.