*** This entry was originally posted to LiveJournal June 5, 2009 ***
Or, If a Conservative Is Happy in the Forest, Will He Still Be Disgusted?
Here are two articles I found on Yahoo this morning:
Conservatives Are More Easily Disgusted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090605/sc_livescience/conservativesaremoreeasilydisgusted
Conservatives Happier than Liberals
http://www.livescience.com/health/080507-liberal-conservative.html
To me, these two things don't seem at first glance to go together. How can someone who goes around being disgusted all the time be happier? And what about the force that I think I see motivating a lot of conservatives: fear? Again, how can someone so afraid be happier?
I think fear and disgust are intertwined. Disgust evolved as a way to protect humans from disease. It's why many of us find rotting meat or feces disgusting. Those things, especially in our ancestral past, could carry diseases from which our ancestors had little protection. In short, "I am disgusted by that because I am afraid it will harm me."
A wise and wonderful man I know teaches that disgust is learned, not inherent. This is why, he says, infants can often be found playing in their own feces. They haven't yet learned to be disgusted by it. If I had to learn to be happy when people are nice to me and to be angry or sad when people harm me, I learned this so early that for all practical purposes it is inherent. Disgust, however, I learned later, when I was capable of understanding potential harm--real or imagined--and of being afraid of that harm.
So if that's true, and if conservatives are disgusted by such things as gay marriage or homosexual sex or transgendered persons or any of the other myriad things by which conservatives find themselves disgusted (and again, these people who have so many things that disgust them are supposedly happier?), then I really want to ask: "Just exactly how do you think these things can or will harm you? What is it about these things that you fear?" I think I get how you perceive that such things as "socialism" (whether the term is correctly applied or not) and gun control will harm you. I don't agree, but I think I get how you see it that way. I am utterly at a loss, however, to understand how you think that two people of the same gender having sex and maybe getting married if they want to, or a person's being transgendered, could possibly do you harm. Seriously, if you're reading this and you hold views that have you disgusted by these things I would genuinely like to know why that is, and precisely what harm you fear from these things. I really do want to know, because I would like to understand. All I ask is that you give your answer in a reasoned and respectful way. Thanks.
I have a hypothesis about this, and I'm not sure it'll be something that those of you who hold these views will want to hear. I think my hypothesis, if it proves to hold water, not only explains the disgust people have for things that I can not fathom causing them harm but also explains the apparent paradox of oft-disgusted--and in my judgment, fearful--people also describing themselves as "very happy." I don't think my current hypothesis explains all of the disgust or the paradox, but I think it might be part of the equation.
The second article provides what I think may be the key: rationalization. The article itself suggests that people who have conservative world views are happier because they rationalize justifications for inequality and are therefore less bothered by it. Conservative people also tend to be more religious, and that adds on the ability to be more satisfied with things as they are because things are, in these people's view, as they are Supposed to Be. I'll add that this rationalization, with or without the added divine rightness aspect, provides a tidy place to hide from and to deny the fear that lies underneath the disgust that people feel toward things that lie outside of their concept of rightness. Denial of fear could, it seems to me, certainly lead a person to say "Nope, nothing wrong here--I'm very happy!" when asked.
Before your ire gets up and before I once again become a lightning rod, let me interject a disclaimer. I know that, as one of my favorite quotes goes, "All generalizations are false, including this one." I know that my statements don't apply to all conservatives or to all religious people. I get it. If you're reading this paragraph and you still feel compelled to emphasize to me how much this doesn't apply to you, then perhaps it applies to you more than you're willing to admit. If it really, truly doesn't apply to you, then you'll know that and you won't be overly troubled by my statements--even if you disagree with them. I invite you to listen to your emotional reactions (or your lack thereof) to my hypothesis, and to learn from those reactions what your feelings are trying to tell you about you. If you disagree with me, even passionately, I welcome spirited debate. If you think you've just been personally attacked, then maybe you're trying to tell yourself something and your ire might well have nothing to do with me at all.
So maybe, just maybe, the perceived threat that conservative people find in homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered persons and in all these other places where conservatives perceive threats is not direct. Maybe your disgust is not based in a fear of direct physical or emotional harm to you. Maybe you're disgusted because you're afraid that the foundations of your fortress of rationalization will be shaken. Maybe it's your world view that is at stake--your sense of divine and cosmic Rightness and of having the one and only set of Right Answers and of knowing how things are Supposed to Be for you and for everyone else--rather than your literal safety.
So I'll ask what occurs to me as the next logical question: "What if you could stand outside the walls of your fortress of rationalization and still be safe?"
Fortresses not only defend, they can imprison.
I'll be out on the plain, if you choose to join me. It's nice out here. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment