Policy vs. Opinion "Are you a conservative?" "Yes." "How could you support the ammendment against same-sex marriage? Are you evil?" What's wrong with this conversation? The post title ought to give it away. Let's face it. Most of us don't control policy. Yet strangely, we spend obscene amounts of time arguing about policy. It's a rather simple reason, of course. Arguing about opinions isn't going to accomplish much. "I oppose same-sex marriage." "Oh, yeah? Well I support it." "Oh. Um. You're stupid!" But of course, policy isn't opinion. I oppose same-sex marriage, but I don't want to see policy enacted that makes same-sex marriage illegal. So instead, we argue about "If I was in charge, this is what policies I would implement. These policies have these consequences, which are good, according to such and such set of values which I expect you to share." (Stupid people argue "good, according to such and such set of values which I don't expect you to share.") But what kind of people are we, then? Would we really do these things if we were in charge, and accept the responsibility? What responsibility is that? Whatever our master plan to make the universe perfect is, somebody's going to get shafted if it ever goes into effect. Do we really have the audacity to say "These people not only have to suffer, but their suffering is, in fact, good"? Who the hell do we think we are? I suppose you could try to get out of it by saying "Well, sure, somebody's going to have to suffer, but my super-genius plan makes things best for most people." All of a sudden, we've become judges who can determine the worth of every human life. That's bold. posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 7/15/2004 08:15:00 PM # Comments (0) . . .
