Feb 14: What changes the heart
The only thing that changes the heart is life experience.
Arguing doesn't change the heart. It doesn't matter if the arguing is ultra-abusive or ultra-courteous. People won't change. There is scientific evidence that people will hold on to their ideologies - even when it can be demonstrated that there beliefs are false, dangerous, or both - because their self-identity is so wrapped up in what they believe. If you are a liberal, you will likely cling to liberal dogma while dismissing everything that comes from right of centre. And vice versa. Same if you're Christian, atheist, Jewish, or a rooster worshiper.
As Vonnegut pointed out, Solzhenitzen came to conservatism after surviving Stalin's Gulag archipelago. My dad came to conservatism after he moved to western Canada. I am a conservative Christian Dr. Pepper drinker because I take pride in not changing ever. I'll die believing the same things I did when I was 10.
When people talk politics, one party never says to the other: "Wow. Thank you for explaining your position so eloquently and for so thoroughly refuting everything I once held to be dear. I want you to know that I now disown my past position and align myself with your ideology. Let me kiss your feet."
Doesn't work that way and I am deeply suspicious when people tell me stories about how they converted other people. Feminists don't become Christians just because they meet Mother Theresa.
Arguing doesn't change the heart. It doesn't matter if the arguing is ultra-abusive or ultra-courteous. People won't change. There is scientific evidence that people will hold on to their ideologies - even when it can be demonstrated that there beliefs are false, dangerous, or both - because their self-identity is so wrapped up in what they believe. If you are a liberal, you will likely cling to liberal dogma while dismissing everything that comes from right of centre. And vice versa. Same if you're Christian, atheist, Jewish, or a rooster worshiper.
As Vonnegut pointed out, Solzhenitzen came to conservatism after surviving Stalin's Gulag archipelago. My dad came to conservatism after he moved to western Canada. I am a conservative Christian Dr. Pepper drinker because I take pride in not changing ever. I'll die believing the same things I did when I was 10.
When people talk politics, one party never says to the other: "Wow. Thank you for explaining your position so eloquently and for so thoroughly refuting everything I once held to be dear. I want you to know that I now disown my past position and align myself with your ideology. Let me kiss your feet."
Doesn't work that way and I am deeply suspicious when people tell me stories about how they converted other people. Feminists don't become Christians just because they meet Mother Theresa.
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