Ignorance
OK, everyone is ignorant, but some people are more obviously so than others. Case in point: Janeane Garofalo.
She was on The Daily Show the other night saying, "at this point wanting to vote for Bush should basically be considered a character flaw." Then she went on to say how people who vote for Bush are just doing it out of a sense of pride for their party leader.
I'll tell you what is, quite clearly, a character flaw: not being able to understand how -- or in her case, even *that* -- a reasonable person can disagree with you for good reasons.
She appears to honestly believe that no one could possibly have a rational basis for voting for Bush (unless, I suppose, they are evil). There are few words to describe this other than "ignorant." "Arrogant," of course, comes to mind, and it certainly is that. But arrogance doesn't imply that it is incorrect, and is therefore an insufficient description.
The only conclusion I can come to is that she doesn't get out much. Oh sure, she travels, but she only talks to people who agree with her, or who are extreme on the other side. She doesn't experience enough of the people in this country to understand the many reasons why so many of us think Bush is a good President.
I'd like to have her sit on my couch for a couple of hours and talk politics with me. At the end, she'd understand that reasonable people have reasonable reasons for wanting Bush to be re-elected as President. Either that, or she would wind up in a fetal position in the middle of the floor. Either way, her view of the world would change. And maybe, just maybe, she would shed some of her obvious ignorance.
She was on The Daily Show the other night saying, "at this point wanting to vote for Bush should basically be considered a character flaw." Then she went on to say how people who vote for Bush are just doing it out of a sense of pride for their party leader.
I'll tell you what is, quite clearly, a character flaw: not being able to understand how -- or in her case, even *that* -- a reasonable person can disagree with you for good reasons.
She appears to honestly believe that no one could possibly have a rational basis for voting for Bush (unless, I suppose, they are evil). There are few words to describe this other than "ignorant." "Arrogant," of course, comes to mind, and it certainly is that. But arrogance doesn't imply that it is incorrect, and is therefore an insufficient description.
The only conclusion I can come to is that she doesn't get out much. Oh sure, she travels, but she only talks to people who agree with her, or who are extreme on the other side. She doesn't experience enough of the people in this country to understand the many reasons why so many of us think Bush is a good President.
I'd like to have her sit on my couch for a couple of hours and talk politics with me. At the end, she'd understand that reasonable people have reasonable reasons for wanting Bush to be re-elected as President. Either that, or she would wind up in a fetal position in the middle of the floor. Either way, her view of the world would change. And maybe, just maybe, she would shed some of her obvious ignorance.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
Leave a comment