Multiple perspectives in politics create diversity
June 13, 2017
Massachusetts Conservative is an oxymoron. Massachusetts Libertarian is slightly better. Our little commonwealth is no forum of diverse political thought- famously, we are the most liberal state in the nation. Yet what, if any, are the effects of this homogeneity?
My personal politics aside (Full disclosure: skeptical of traditional Massachusetts policy), the homogeneity in Massachusetts does us no favors. Most Bay State communities lack significant political dissent, becoming little more than echo chambers.
Let’s not pretend Algonquin is immune. Ideas, fixed within minds by the Groupthink that surrounds, are seldom dissected or replaced, withering the brain. Mind-expanding debate, where good ideas thrive and bad fail, is all-too-rare.
Real dissent is nearly extinct, and as a result we lack real change. Gone are the days in which Massachusetts housed great debates between political firebrands, as today they nearly all agree. So challenge this norm. Read beyond your camp- read left, right, libertarian, authoritarian, capitalist and communist. Break the mold, and try to see whether your ideas hold up against scrutiny.
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