Page 19 - Liberating Liberals V2

Liberating Liberals
much freer thinker than I am. Nor am I setting myself up as the quintessential freethinker. I’m just saying that there are a lot of destructive, well-hidden minefields lying between unfree and free thinking and that this book is going to explore some of the less obvious ones.
Why just yesterday I was lecturing a friend about my intimate knowledge of what should be done in the Middle East. It felt great being on my high horse spouting what-fors over scrumptious enchiladas and passionate beer.
“The only chance is for America to pull all troops and weapons from the Middle East and hope that Middle Eastern hatred of the U.S., the West and each other will eventually die down,” I pontificated to him, and probably to several tables nearby.
But a large gremlin kept rearing its ugly skeptical head. I’d never even been to the Middle East! I’d only read what people wrote about it so my assessment was many times removed hearsay heaped on top of a leap of faith and buoyed by vast generalizations. Had I even investigated the accuracy and integrity of those journalists and historians from whom I’d extracted my brilliant views? ... A big nasty NO.
In addition, I have an immense prejudice against the usefulness of violence and for the potentialities of nonviolence. And tangled up with all this prejudice
is a significant portion of my philosophical outlook on life, the basic meaning that justifies my having a
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