There is a base element in our education system, in our media and in our socio-political communication that is inhibiting freedom of thought and undermining the political mindset of the general public. The political spectrum is one of the most dangerous and destructive anti-academic forces at work today.
As educated people, especially as young students, we identify ourselves politically as left or right, socialist or capitalist, liberal or conservative. This is inherently ruinous. By standing still, by taking our place on the linear spectrum we’ve come to understand, we limit our vision and continue to further cement our static viewpoint.
I am a capitalist but I support heavily state-subsidized health and education. I am pro-choice, pro-equality, anti-special status, anti-union. I am a white, middle-class, Canadian male coming from a Judeo-Christian background. I believe in the decriminalization of marijuana, the right to euthanasia, corporate sponsorship of post-secondary institutions and feel that organized religions are intellectually destructive.
So I guess I am economically right with left-wing tendencies when it comes to human capital-intensive social programs and my social views are centre-left. Does that make me a neo-liberal slightly right of centre or a soft libertarian with left-wing leanings?
Who cares?
I have my own set of views formed by personal experience, personal biases and personal education. I make no concessions to fit a set ideology, I pledge no allegiance to someone else’s platform and it is my constant prerogative to change my viewpoint at any time. I’d like to think I’m not in the minority.
Categorizing ideology and proselytizing party policy is a means of controlling those unwilling to question and/or unable to think. It started when they made us colour between the lines and it should stop right here. Besides, crayons lost their novelty once there were rules we had to follow.