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Generally in my mind, political opinions are the of a combination of my values and my perception of the world/how I think the world works. So the end result is that I end up with strong opinions on a lot of issues because those opinions are directly connected to my values and things I "know" to be true. If I'm supporting a political cause or issue it's because my values and "knowledge" lead me to the opinion that this cause or issue will make the world or country or state or whatever actually better off (fiscal stimulus, for example) or that the cause is quite simply moral correct (gay marriage support or civil rights, for instance). Holding that opinion, I thus think that people in opposition are either making us worse off or basically immoral. That doesn't mean that I hate those people, of course, it just means I think what they're doing is very wrong. If people believe that "Scottish" is a distinct nation/people from "British" and/or they believe that the Parliament in London doesn't and won't reflect their values and preferences, and they "know" that an independent Scottish nation is feasible, then it's not surprising to me that those things would combine into a strong political preference for an independent Scotland. On the flip side, if they strongly value British patriotism/their connection to Britain and/or "know" that an independent Scotland would be a disaster economically, then strong feelings about voting "No" make a great deal of sense. Personally, not being Scottish I had only a weak opinion, since the referendum didn't really closely touch on strongly held values of mine. I strongly believe in the right of a people to determine their own destiny (and hence like that the referendum was held) but my belief that different nations with major differences should have separate states was somewhat tempered by my "knowledge" that Scotland and England have mostly gotten along for centuries. This was also tempered by my uncertainty in the issue, having never been to Scotland/Britain. The end result was for me a weak "Yes" preference (though of course I couldn't vote). Note: "know"/"knowledge" are in scare-quotes because some fraction of the things that I "know" I'm only mostly or somewhat sure about, and some fraction (hopefully a small fraction) of the things I "know" are wrong. However I'm already using "belief" to refer to values, so can't use it to refer to facts. Jackson Taus fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 20:40
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 09:57 |
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