Everyone, at All Times

Having Rand Paul as a candidate won’t be boring. You would think by now everyone would be over stuff like the Civil Rights Act (passed during my childhood) and Women’s Suffrage (before my time), but Paul seems to believe that federal laws protecting the rights of all Americans somehow trample on the rights of someone or something else (I’m sort of fuzzy on exactly what he is thinking; Pal over at White Coat Underground has a better handle on the views).

I must admit there are times when I feel out-of-sorts with “others.” Usually this happens when I am in clinic and I have multiple Spanish-speaking parents and too few translators. Or I am trying to schedule a meeting and I have to work around a whole bunch of religious holidays. I curse those who are not like me, although I do feel bad about it later.

It would never occur to me to insist that those who are different from me cannot learn, eat, work, or seek medical assistance alongside me. Like those on Avenue Q, I misjudge some people based on external factors. When push comes to shove, we are ALL in this together.

Rand Paul’s views go beyond the “little bit” standard. His legal viewpoint could return us to “separate but equal.”  Should a private restaurant really not be required to adhere to the Civil Rights Act?

Now that would be a little bit stupid.

Then Color Me Pinko

I have friends and relatives living in terror. They fear that they will lose their health care coverage to “Obama’s socialist agenda.”

Of course, their primary coverage is via Medicare, a government program. One could say a socialist program.

What is socialism? According to Wikipedia:

various theories of economic organization which advocate either public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources.

In short, public ownership constitutes socialism. I live in Nebraska, a generally red state, where “socialist” is considered a major insult, yet I purchase my water, gas, and electricity from publically-owned utilities with elected boards. Looks like socialism to me.

My children attend excellent public schools and universities. An educated electorate is essential to democracy, and most education in the US is subsidized by the public one way or another. More socialism in action.

Early intervention is  another service readily available through our socialist education system. Every state in the union put these programs into place during the 1990’s to target children with special needs. Their development improves with programs implemented before the traditional school age, sometimes during the first year of life. Most parents would not be able to afford the intensive behavioral and occupational therapy provided by these publically-funded programs.

Yup, early intervention programs are another example of pooling public resources to provide a public good. More of that “S” word.

Sarah Palin denounces socialism every chance she gets. She attended several public universities, though, and has thus benefitted from educational socialism. Yes, you pay to go to university, but it is highly subsidized via tax dollars, even for out-of-state students. State universities are big-government at work.

Palin claims to have turned down government handouts. Will she become even more suspect of public and government funding as the tea-party movement gathers steam? I hope not; for the sake of her son, Trig, I hope she accepts those socialist early intervention services.

Just say thanks- the American public does this because it is the right correct thing to do. We all want Trig to have the best life he possibly can. I personally want every child to have nutritious food, educational opportunities, vaccinations, and adequate healthcare, even though it means higher taxes for me. Even though it means a larger government. I would like every US citizen to have guaranteed health care, whether or not they are employed or have pre-existing medical conditions. I do not see how these changes to healthcare threaten individual freedoms in any way.

Guess that makes me a socialist. Please don’t shoot me.

Moral Psychology and Political Leanings

Over the weekend I relaxed with the December issue of Scientific American. The Skeptic column by Michael Shermer explored the psychological differences between liberal and conservatives. We all know the stereotypes of these political entities; research can now explain some of the differences:

Like many other stereotypes, each of these contains an element of truth that reflects an emphasis on different moral values. Jonathan Haidt, who is a psychologist at the University of Virginia, explains such stereotypes in terms of his Moral Foundations Theory (see www.moralfoundations.org), which he developed “to understand why morality varies so much across cultures yet still shows so many similarities and recurrent themes.” Haidt proposes that the foundations of our sense of right and wrong rest within “five innate and universally available psychological systems” that might be summarized as follows: 

1. Harm/care: Evolved mammalian attachment systems mean we can feel the pain of others, giving rise to the virtues of kindness, gentleness and nurturance.
2. Fairness/reciprocity: Evolved reciprocal altruism generates a sense of justice.
3. Ingroup/loyalty: Evolved in-group tribalism leads to patriotism.
4. Authority/respect: Evolved hierarchical social structures translate to respect for authority and tradition.
5. Purity/sanctity: Evolved emotion of disgust related to disease and contamination underlies our sense of bodily purity.

Liberals generally score high on 1 and 2 with lower scores on components 3, 4, and 5. Conservatives usually have similar scores for all 5 themes, with 1 and 2 lower than self-reported liberals.

Want to know how you stack up? Go to www.yourmorals.org and take the quiz! There are 5 “morality” quizzes (the one summarized above is fifth on the list). After taking each brief quiz you see your results and how they compare to others in the study population. A number of other studies and tests are included on the site as well.

An “informed consent” check box precedes each question set, so the site generates data for the group. Assist a psychologist with their research today!

My results? I am an admitted liberal who provided further validation of their findings.

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.