A Country Full of Monsters

People don’t understand the principle of double effect which is just the idea that sometimes we accept consequences for the sake of the truly important motivating factor.

Capitalists are willing to accept that some people will win and lose for the sake of an innovative, dynamic economy in which they believe people will prosper more on the whole. Communists are willing to accept that some people will lose their wealth so that everybody can prosper more on the whole.

But capitalists look at communists and see that communists want to take away their money, or communists look at capitalists and see that they’re willing to accept inequalities in wealth, and both sides assume that the other desires the negative consequences rather than the end goals.

The same dynamic happens between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and even disputes within these political subsets. Any time there’s an “other side,” there’s a chance to mistake an effect of somebody’s beliefs with the goal of their beliefs.

Next thing you know the country is half full of monsters.

There are some greedy, heartless, self-serving bastards out there, but most people just want to see the country end up better off than it was before so that the people in it (themselves included) will be happier.

Remember this next time you can’t understand how the other side could possibly want something that seems so wrong to you, because they probably want exactly what you want. You just need to figure out why your way of getting to that goal is better than their way, and that takes a calm tone and a clear head.

As things stand, calm tones and clear heads are hard to come by which might have something to do with why people seem to see so many monsters in the United States these days.

Think the world needs to shut up and think? Do political discourse a favor and share!