At an early age we're taught the value of sportsmanship. We're taught to be good team players and gracious winners. We're taught that there's nothing admirable about being a sore loser or a sore sport. As adults, we find it important to instill these qualities of good sportsmanship in our children, yet grownups often do a poor job of leading by example. Avid sports fans often show children that it's okay to support one's own team by bashing the opponent. That 'YOU SUCK!!' yelled at the opposing team is just as effective as 'GO TEAM!!!' in support of your own. Worse, kids grow up thinking that's acceptable behaviour and quickly lose the values of sportsmanship. I wish that more of us would retain the values that we were taught as children.
I guess it's no wonder that many people display equally disheartening poor politicsmanship. I've never really understood the point of badmouthing the opposing political party without offering constructive solutions to the issues at hand. On Facebook, I try to steer clear of politics (for the most part) because daily I see people using Facebook (and mass forwarded e-mail messages) that do nothing but bash a political party, as if badmouthing one party proves that the other party is superior. And I'm angered when I see members of any party affiliation doing this, even my own! I think that we could all benefit from remembering the lessons we learned as children and should begin practicing good politicsmanship, where we aren't sore losers who bash opposing opinions. Instead, we should welcome opportunities to strengthen our own 'teams' by being part of productive and thoughtful solutions. I have no problem with disagreement or thoughtful debate. But name-calling and insult-slinging do nothing to further our growth as a community or a nation.
Just something I've been thinking about lately.
From growing up in the household I did, the overabundance of hypochristianism and political-supremism taught me to stay far away from discussion of two topics in conversing with others: religion and politics. The older & more mature I get, the more the "core characteristics of Lizzy" are being developed. (Not just with the above topics, but with many others). I like this entry! Kids can teach us SO much.
ReplyDeleteI feel a little bit like Al Franken is part of that machine, but I know exactly what you're talking about, especially when it comes to facebook. The Us versus Them mentality is so depressing to me. It's a big country, but sometimes people act like there's only room for the people who agree with them, and everyone else is a big fat idiot. For me, lack of politicianship is the number one downside of facebook. Anyway, this was mostly to let you know that I've been reading your blog, even if I haven't commented until just now. Also, I realize that your stateside schedule is likely to be hectic, but I did want to talk to you about it.
ReplyDeleteJason, I wouldn't disagree about Al Franken being part of the machine. But I find him so damn funny :-) His book was something fun to share with a likeminded friend in the context of a private setting. I also dislike the whole Us and Them mentality, because lumping people together in ginormous groups overlooks the complexity of people. I hate when some of my opinions are assumed, based on other opinions that I hold. Grrr. Also, States dates are changing...I'll keep you posted!
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