Every time I start to write a blog post about being Moderate, I get about six pages in and stop because I know that no one will read it. So I wrote this in a burst. It’s about as short as I can make it. I’ll post a second one at some point with pretty pictures (which is a great way to understand). Until then:
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I am a Moderate.
I am an atheist who is moved by spiritual music.
I am a meat-eater who believes that we treat the animals that we eat unreasonably cruelly.
I am a former Marine who loves war games and military history, but who thinks that we spend far too much time, money, and youth on war.
I am a heterosexual married man who does not care who anyone else loves or marries, as long as everyone involved consents.
I like guns and believe that people should have access to some of them. But, like cars, drugs, airplanes, prostitution, alcohol, fireworks, and other potentially harmful goods and services, I believe that it should be regulated and integrated into our licensing system.
I have benefited and suffered within the VA health care system, which is full of wonderful people who have to work in a shit structure. I believe that education and health care are the rights of individuals who are part of a society, just like police and fire protection.
If you ask me when life begins, I answer approximately 3.5 billion years ago. If you ask me when human life begins, I answer about 200,000 years ago. If you then call me an asshole, I’ll answer that, after those two single-celled gametes fuse into one zygote, it passes through a life stage of every organism that came before us until a fully modern human sits before you. So much of that process, that transition from early evolutionary life to fully modern human in and out of the womb, is gray that I could not tell you when or if it would be acceptable to have or to disallow an abortion. But I am also the wrong person to make that decision. And, probably, so are you. Sometimes subjects are just hard and don’t have crisp, clean answers.
I am a Moderate, not because I am indecisive, but because I think carefully about an issue, placing any bias I may have in a jar on the shelf. I believe these things, not because I am trying to appease the competing sides of an issue, but because I recognize that these are only issues because they are complicated. They cannot be summarized in a single bullet point. If I happen to gravitate toward a side, it because it is closer to the correct answer than the other side. But it is stupid to have to choose between sides when, most of the time, neither has the complete right of it.
I would accept the term Independent, but that it implies an indifference to the influence of others. I consider the input of everyone, though most of all reason, before concluding whatever I will. I am, after all, part of the larger gang of humanity: Homo sapiens sapiens.
There have been (conservatively) five billion distinct species on this planet in its history. Conspiracy theories aside, we are the first species clever enough to stop our own extinction. That we have not heard from any other sentient species in our galaxy does not auger well for our prospects. Society is a pendulum whose meter is influenced by the whims of a bored cat, swatting as it swings. It can take a drastic action to get the wave function back to normal again. It has been almost fifty years since any human has stepped foot on another world. We’ve gone from black and white television to Siri pulling up videos of panda flatulence on YouTube on your cell phone in that time. We are pointed in the wrong direction and some people really like it that way.
But not everybody. I think most of us are all befuddled by a lot of things. Here’s a short list:
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Which is more important: the group or the individual?
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Should people be helped or should they fend for themselves?
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Who is more important: you or someone else?
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Which is the most important career field in the world?
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Name six characteristics of a good person. Are people without those characteristics bad people?
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What is a society for exactly?
I think we can all agree:
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that the natural world is beautiful and important and we should do what we can to protect it.
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that we should try to do things for ourselves so as not to be a burden on others.
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that if someone needs help, we should help.
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that there are too many fucking ads. Look in any direction for sixty seconds. If you haven’t seen or heard an ad yet, you’re probably staring at a wall in silence and getting impatient to look at something or listen to something that will include an ad.
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that, as a species, we are omnivores.
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that sometimes, though rarely, the solution to the threat is killing it.
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that the weather is really different now than when we were kids or when our parents and grandparents were kids.
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that making something require three batteries when batteries are sold in even numbers is evil. I’m not a conspiracy nut, but that just wreaks of collusion.
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that no none needs a fancy beard maintenance kit. My “beard maintenance kit” is a fifty cent comb, a two dollar pair of cuticle scissors, and a two dollar bottle of coconut oil, none of which are uni-taskers. It’s like buying a Pictionary game for $20 when you can buy a pencil and a pad of paper for $5. Every time I see an ad for a “beard maintenance kit,” I think of the Artisinal Ice episode of Kimmie Schmidt.
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that vehicles should be electric, regardless of what process generates that electricity.
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that Trump as president is a bad thing. Say it.
I know almost no one is going to read this because it’s longer than 140 characters and it doesn’t fully represent position A or B. And people hate it, just hate it, when you just hand them the obvious answer to things. It would be great, really just peachy, if we could do the right things. I would dance like a smurf if tomorrow every decent person that I know wasn’t screaming at another decent person that I know, calling them idiots or monsters and claiming that they’re destroying the country.
I’m voting Democrat this election. Not because I like Democrats more than Republicans. Much as I love and respect some folks on both sides, you both tend to be cliquey and close-minded about anything that conflicts with your political position. I don’t want a world run entirely by Liberals anymore than I want a world run entirely by Conservatives.
No. I’m voting Democrat because Republicans are more wrong right now and Democrats are more correct right now. A lot more. Leaps and bounds more. So much so that the pendulum is cartoonishly off and needs fierce righting. This does not resolve the core issue: that this tug of war is childish and needs to come to an end. But this is a step toward it.
I’ve got a kid. A smart, creative, bullheaded twinkling star in a pitch black sky. And we’re heading for a world that is terrible, blockbuster movie terrible. Or for a renaissance awakening as humanity has never seen before. Tough to say which at this point. But there’s not a lot of wiggle room in the middle of those two. I think we’d all rather be getting our kids ready for the latter than the former.
I need my species to survive. If my species is going to survive, I need my species to put less jackass into the world and be less tolerant of it. For my kid’s sake, stop for a second. Look at your community, your gang, the hat you wear, the people you support, the biases you pretend to question but don’t, and the people that you can’t stand. I know you think that your gang is warm and welcoming to everyone. They are not. And you allow it. You are the problem. It’s you. Fix you.
R,
CG