Page 23 - Liberating Liberals V2
P. 23

Liberating Liberals
it deals with the ideal that undergirds the effectiveness of these First Amendment rights — freedom of thought. First Amendment rights don’t mean much unless citizens are actually thinking freely.
And from my investigations freethinking is not as easy as it might seem. Socrates defined one of the first challenging basics of freethinking which, roughly translated is: “At least we know that we don’t know.”7 That is, we need to have the ability and courage to frequently challenge even our own most cherished beliefs. Many liberals are so dedicated to freethinking that they do this. Whereas many conservatives believe that they have the unquestionably right answers and are not about to consider otherwise.
Yet because liberals know that we don’t know we also have to seriously consider that conservatives may have many of the right answers. And do this knowing that conservatives won’t return the favor. C’est la freethinking vie ... again.
Regardless, it should be a cause of great pride that liberals have ventured far beyond the conservative mind prisons of fundamentalist Christianity, fundamentalist capitalism, and Leave It to Beaver lifestyles. Not that Ward and June Cleaver didn’t make a fine life for the boys.
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