More on people who are different..
December 8, 2007
, , and have all posted on similar topics, and their thoughts provoke me to think more, too.
I think I am a broad-minded person. (no, that's not a teenager who has girls in his thoughts.) I do enjoy points of view that are very different from mine...as long as the logic holds and the argument is reasonably presented, I have, in fact, changed my views sometimes. I also try to understand the fact that others are as much entitled to their points of view as I am to mine.
But in spite of every attempt to be reasonable, I find that prejudice and preconceptions do tend to creep in. One of the things I find is, how easy it is to have views which are politically correct for the present, and how difficult it is to have views that go against the general flow.
For example, this view amongst all "alternate" schools that the computer is NOT a good thing. They talk about the addictions of the Internet, the danger of problems to mental and physical health, the changeover from real friendships to virtual ones...but what I think is that these dangers are only for the miniscule urban population which has constant access to the Net. For the average villager or farmer, the Internet is a great tool to be in touch with the world, to get information that has not been propogandized, and to enhance the quality of life somewhat. Access is so limited that the dangers are not great right now.
Then, of course, being part of the "green" brigade is politically very correct now. Let's do something to save the world, we are destroying it. But surely those who are busy fighting several battles to live their own lives, and don't want to get on to the evangelical bandwagon, have a right to live their lives without worrying aout more than they can handle.
And then...there are times when I see campaigns to save this and that species, and I wonder...are we wrong to try to do all that? After all, evolution, and extinction of species, is a process that has been on in Nature for a long time now. If humans are part of the process of evolution, and their intervention is resulting in the extinction of species happening at a faster rate..is that also a part of the whole process?
There are many people I know, who feel that all the brouhaha about global warming is also not justified by the facts....to read about this point of view, read the fiction, "State of Fear", by Michael Crichton(thanks for the correction, Rajesh). The point he makes is that we are now conditioned to fear something or the other happening all the time...global warming, the ozone layer,AIDS epidemics, avian flu, and so on. Perhaps some of these are self-limiting changes and their happening is a part of nature, they say.
When the Exxon Valdez oil disaster, or Saddam Husseins setting fire to oil wells in Iraq happened, major disasters were forecasted...these have been proved false, they say.
So sometimes I wonder...am I right in my opinions, or do these "other" people have a valid point that I am missing in my eagerness to do my bit to save the world? Does the world need saving at all, or am I making a song and dance about it to make myself feel good as a saviour?
Doubts...at least they make me re-examine my opinions, and see if I have to change them.
