This built in mental control manifests itself with an idealistic philosophy of, "That’s all OK and fine, but…" or, "If I really believe in myself anything is possible." This is almost always considered a positive outlook and a procees for accomplishment, and, it is believed, there is nothing wrong with that. We’ll more carefully examine that premise later.
CONSERVATIVES
The conservative person is basically a pessimistic skeptic who trusts only in what he perceives as physical reality, with no need for contemplation or excessive analysis. If you can see it, feel it, hold it, and it doesn’t vanish on its own, it must be so. This hard wired thought process is just as involuntary and pervasive as the idealistic optimism of the liberal mind.
This predetermined skepticism results in a philosophy of, "Yeah, that’s the way it is, live with it," or "A man has got to know his limitations". This, also, is usually considered a favorable attitude, being astutely aware of the surroundings and taking stock of the pros and cons of that environment. And, again, we believe that there is nothing wrong with that.
But, let’s now examine the effect, both good and not so good, of these mindsets on the lives of their victims both as individuals and in a relationship.
The optimist is just that. Always believing in the potential for improvement as reality, or that reality is not as dismal as others believe, he is incapable of abandoning his pursuit of perfection and surrendering to what actually is. His engrained idealism prevents him from compromising his principals.
The skeptic is just what it says he is. Always careful to accurately assess a situation, he unemotionally considers every perceivable aspect of the moment and doesn’t attempt to gloss it over or make a silk purse out of a sows ear. He is reluctant to believe in possibilities as a given and only admits to the facts as is. This is what is available to him and he will start there and have no expectations that anything is any more or less than what he sees.
We can see, then, why liberals consider conservatives as stodgy, old fashioned, and wrong in their vision of what needs to be done. And equally apparent is why conservatives see liberals as unrealistic and dishonest in the way they analyze the particulars of the world.
Understanding these inherited mental presets would, one might hope, ease the animosities between the rival philosophies. But the sad truth is, due to the inability of the optimist to accept anything at face value and believing that a voluntary change of the conservative’s insistance on basis of fact is possible, the optimistic liberals exploit their idealistic emotion and attack the personality of the realist with character insults and name calling. They refuse to consider the inability of conservatives to accept potential as reality while they themselves are equally unable to accept things for what they are. The conservative, if left to his own inclinations, sees no need or desire to try to change the way liberals believe, choosing instead to accept reality and write them off as what they are, a lost cause incapable of ascertaining the truth.
Glenn Flowers