Page 31 - Liberating Liberals V2

Liberating Liberals
is it a most potentially gratifying job, but speaking from a center of happiness may be the best way to communicate effectively with conservatives — as well as that part of our liberal minds still imprisoned by conservative fundamentalisms. Not to mention that nothing will close conservative ears faster than delivering our message with shrill bitterness.
The word “fundamentalism” applies to
many more areas than Merriam Webster’s first definition of “a movement in 20th Century Protestantism emphasizing a literally interpreted
Bible as fundamental to Christian life and teachings.” Fundamentalism, according to that dictionary, is also “A movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles.”17 This can include a strict adherence to any system that purports to solve almost all problems. Unfree fundamentalist thinking ranges far beyond its traditional arena of religion into economics, lifestyles and almost every area of life. And such thinking is especially dangerous to freethinking because it is so comforting. It provides ready-made bromides with literally all the answers.
It isn’t going to be easy liberating these conservative mind prisons, but the more we liberate ourselves from our lesser but still oppressive mind meltdowns, the happier and more effective we may be. And the more playful we are, the more quickly we’ll uncover our own fundamentalisms.
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