Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - constraint thread 2: the political recursion game

filtherton · 01-05-2008, 07:24 PM

Well, both my parents are pretty liberal. My dad is the prototypical reformed earnest choir boy- full of boy scoutesque integrity and a comprehensive understanding of electrical and mechanical things. My mom is the prototypical farm girl made good- first in her family to get a degree, all that.

Politically, i pretty much accepted their perspectives on the way things ought to be, until i hit the teenage years and they spontaneously became ridiculously naive and hopelessly clueless about everything i cared about.

The high school i went to was actually pretty great, the curriculum was very unconventional- we learned about all the typically radical things- feminism, american patriarchical culture, labor struggles, the more militant sides of the civil rights movement, institutional oppression, human rights. It was all very discussion oriented and the tests consisted of a written analysis of every day of class that was handed in at the end of the trimester.

I don't agree with a lot of the things they taught there anymore, but i value having been exposed to them, and being trusted to be able to think critically about them.

Despite my fairly liberal parents, and my super liberal primary education, i don't necessarily think that i'm all that liberal. I actually kind of detest the term, along with "conservative" too. They don't actually mean anything all that interesting, they just provide a convenient way to write off someone's perspective.

So far, i don't think the political beliefs i was exposed to in my life have been all that influential. What has been more useful has been the fact that i tend towards curiosity and mistrust- i want to know why things are the way they are, and i don't trust people to not fuck them up.

I believe that my experiences are in some sense microcosm of the human experience. I know people who have spent most of their lives making mistakes who have figured things out and turned their lives around. I know people who have been nothing but successful who are nothing but a pox to everyone they know.

I prefer ideas with utility, and utility knows no specific ideology.

01-05-2008, 07:24 PM	#13 (permalink)
filtherton Junkie Location: In the land of ice and snow.	Well, both my parents are pretty liberal. My dad is the prototypical reformed earnest choir boy- full of boy scoutesque integrity and a comprehensive understanding of electrical and mechanical things. My mom is the prototypical farm girl made good- first in her family to get a degree, all that. Politically, i pretty much accepted their perspectives on the way things ought to be, until i hit the teenage years and they spontaneously became ridiculously naive and hopelessly clueless about everything i cared about. The high school i went to was actually pretty great, the curriculum was very unconventional- we learned about all the typically radical things- feminism, american patriarchical culture, labor struggles, the more militant sides of the civil rights movement, institutional oppression, human rights. It was all very discussion oriented and the tests consisted of a written analysis of every day of class that was handed in at the end of the trimester. I don't agree with a lot of the things they taught there anymore, but i value having been exposed to them, and being trusted to be able to think critically about them. Despite my fairly liberal parents, and my super liberal primary education, i don't necessarily think that i'm all that liberal. I actually kind of detest the term, along with "conservative" too. They don't actually mean anything all that interesting, they just provide a convenient way to write off someone's perspective. So far, i don't think the political beliefs i was exposed to in my life have been all that influential. What has been more useful has been the fact that i tend towards curiosity and mistrust- i want to know why things are the way they are, and i don't trust people to not fuck them up. I believe that my experiences are in some sense microcosm of the human experience. I know people who have spent most of their lives making mistakes who have figured things out and turned their lives around. I know people who have been nothing but successful who are nothing but a pox to everyone they know. I prefer ideas with utility, and utility knows no specific ideology.