In political rhetoric the conversation often focuses on honoring a person with strong beliefs and castigating the person who changes his position.
Being true to your beliefs is only a virtue if being sure your beliefs are true is an even higher priority. That simple truth usually gets lost in the heat of political rhetoric. I doubt that Hitler, or Stalin, or Ghaddafi were ever accused of not being true to their beliefs.
Being sure your beliefs are true requires constantly reevaluating your beliefs in light of all available information, and requires a willingness to admit you are wrong and change your viewpoint.
There should be a direct correlation between certainty in your beliefs and the amount of time you spend critically evaluating your beliefs - more time = more certainty. Unfortunately in politics usually the inverse correlation is more accurate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment