Faults

I was going to post something a little less serious today, but what the heck. I managed to stumble across this from the Dhammapada and found it particularly applicable to politics:

Regard him as one who points out treasure,
   the wise one who seeing your faults rebukes you.
Stay with this sort of sage.
For the one who stays with a sage of this sort,
   things get better,
   not worse.

Let him admonish, instruct,
   deflect you away from poor manners.
To the good, he's endearing;
to the bad, he's not.

- Dhp 76-77

I think that this is perhaps the biggest problem with most people particularly with regard to politics. Few people truly want to seriously look at the weaknesses in their political positions or anything else. Few people really try to listen to "the other side." Most of the time people look at only the facts supporting their position and pretend that anything else doesn't exist.

Sometimes, on certain issues, I ask people: "What sort of evidence, what sort of proof, would you need to change your mind?" If you can't identify some sort of factual information that would alter your position on an issue, then it's a really strong sign that you're not being rational. If you're not being rational then you're probably also not willing to look at faults.

People really should welcome alternate opinions, because getting information from someone who doesn't share your biases, or perhaps has opposite biases, can reveal facts which you may have overlooked or may not hear about if you only associate with those who share your opinion.

Then again, there are also people who have an opposing position on something who have no facts to support their position. They believe something just because someone else told them to, and they can't really teach you anything about why. These people are just annoying. That's why the word wise in "the wise one who seeing your faults rebukes you" is rather important.