Left is Left and Right is Right, and Never the Twain Shall Meet?

Growing up, I was the weirdo in school who excelled at both mathematics (algebra, analysis, calculus) and literature. Perhaps it's a symptom of being split between my right brain (emotions, art) and my left (logic, critical thinking).

In fact, I might even say that my whole life has been a struggle to sort out my emotions from my intellect. As such a person, of course, I recognize and appreciate both the affective and the deductive ways of experiencing and interpreting the "reality" we all find ourselves in.

Unfortunately, most people hopelessly cling to one or the other when trying to convince others (or even themselves) of their own point of view. So, inevitably perhaps, I have come to the sad conclusion that we, people, will never make any progress until there is a marriage between the two.

Most of my libertarian friends, for instance, rely solely on logic and reasoning, tending to discount any emotionally charged appeals to human action. Followers of Ayn Rand are often even more extreme, seeing reasoning as the only characteristic that separates humans from animals ...

On the other hand, illogical thinkers cannot be expected to use logic to reach so-called "truth, with a capital T." They consider logic to be dry and inhuman and, thus, rely more upon their sense of right and wrong to draw their conclusions ...

Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the divide betwixt "conservatives" and "liberals" (incorrectly described as "the left" and "the right," in that the brain's hemispheres are the opposite ... but nonetheless).

Psychology offers plenty of corroborating evidence to suggest that political views are primarily influenced by personality types -- those more emotional tend to be "liberal," while the more logical tend to be "conservative." (Whether how they identify makes them more logical or emotional is a completely different question. ;))

And let us be clear, I am not referring to most politicians on the left or the right (as politics is a dirty business, and politicians rarely practice what they preach -- preferring rather to spew simplistic latitudes that appeal to either one side or the other of the political spectrum). But politicians are a different breed, altogether.

So, my conservative friends tend to harp on logical inconsistencies, such as straw-man arguments, whereas most of the rest of my acquaintances just don't do logic.

They do, "Don't you feel the same as me? The way we are all supposed to feel? The way true humans feel? -- No??? You must be a Nazi!"

Perhaps the gaping gulf between the two approaches may seem obvious to many, but it seems to me that learning to span the two extremes is not.

As a believer of the Austrian School of economics, I don't see a one-size-fits-all solution. I just hope that the more logically-minded learn to get better in touch with their emotions -- by putting themselves in others' shoes -- and the more emotional ones by testing their own concrete reactions across broad spectra.

It may confuse some of you, but that's the way I see it: If liberals fail to see the bigger picture, conservatives only see the abstract principles. And vice-versa.

So, what can be done about it? I don't know, exactly, but maybe it goes back to the two most important lessons I am still trying to learn in life ...

1. Listen to others, and

2. Never stop educating yourself!

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