Let's Disagree

A little politics—how about it?

The term fundamentalist is often used in a derogatory way towards people who believe assuredly and stick to it. Either the word is simply used to criticize Christians who take God seriously at His word, or it is tacked in front of another word—the ugliest of all words—conservative. To about half the people, combing the words conservative and fundamentalist forms a phrase that summarizes all that is wrong in the world today. To those who stand opposite in thought to those dubbed fundamentalist conservatives, the phrase represents the ignorant religious political standpoint that prevents the advancement of society. It is a rampart that barricades the further movement and natural progression of the intelligent and civilized cultured population from fixing the world. One of the big problems is that they are innately stubborn. It seems the fundamentalist conservative is steadfast, rooted deep within a conviction that is simply unearthable. There is no way to convert a conservative fundamentalist; for the most part they are a cancer that must be cut out and destroyed—else the greater and functioning body will suffer.

But there is an exact opposite to that perspective. There are those who believe in a set of fundamental truths that guarantee, if followed, a calm and peaceful society of prosperity and general well-being. They are not being stubborn, but faithful to the ideals that America was founded on, and even more importantly, faithful to God (at least they convince themselves they are), which is the most important of all life-walks. After all, why save a life only to see in perish in the dust of time a few years or decades later while the soul left untended withers, wilts, and is lost forever. For those who believe in the eternal, earthly life is really just the deep breath in preparation before diving into eternity.

These generalizations I have made are nothing more than a shameful attempt to summarize the myriad socialscape of two large and complicated ideologies. I do recognize that this summery is probably offensive to most people that fit into the two categories. The one thing that seems to unite both sides of the disagreement is that they hate being categorized. People seem drawn to the false conclusion they are unique and special enough to deserve their own category. No, sorry, that is just a joke no one laughs at because they think it’s true. We are all different, but not necessarily unique.

As much as both groups hate each other, try to imagine what it would be like to have only one unified mindset. It would be a balance with one side. It would be an elevator that only goes one way. The simple fact of the matter is, a train needs both sides of the track in order to move anywhere. Right now, it seems that the train is going in circles, but at least it’s moving. Working out our differences is slow and difficult work, but worth the effort. It’s likely that both the extreme far left and right are wrong. In order to drive a car straight down a road, we inevitably steer both directions. Without opposition, there would be no movement in any direction. It is simply a fact that there needs to be friction for anything to work.

So as much as I may cling to one of the perspectives I mentioned above, and as much as I may think the other side is ignorant, and as much as I may want to get rid of it, we need each other to motivate each other to push for change.