Dangerous Beliefs

I feel threatened by your dangerous beliefs.
You feel threatened by mine.

We see the arguments back and forth:

Is it the way for a same sex couple
    To finally, publicly, and civilly
    Declare their love and committment?
Or the next step in moral decay
    Where all sensible boundaries are torn down
    By people forcing on us
    Lifestyles and beliefs
    Harmful to all?

Is it the way to protect the earth
    And in future prevent lakes catching fire?
Or an enforced loss of jobs
    To protect a single bird?

Is it a living wage
    For hard working poor who deserve to feed their families?
Or an ill-conceived push
    Forcing companies to choose between
    Paying people a little, or paying them not at all?

Is it proof we are tough on crime?
Or yet another way
    For someone in the wrong place at the wrong time
    To have their life ruined?

On and on it goes.

One dangerous belief wins and the other one loses.

So when my group comes to power
We undo all the damage your group did.
Then yours come in
And do the same thing.

Didn't it used to be:
    Thesis
    Antithesis
    Synthesis?

    Point
    Counterpoint
    Resolution.

How did we become so afraid
Of listening to the other point of view
And learning from it?

We'd like life to be simple, but it isn't.

Maybe its time we started being open to the other side of
our cherished belief.

Can I operate with empathy and compassion to listen to what you
will lose if I win?

Can we perhaps step away from being afraid of being the victim
of the other person's dangerous belief?

Perhaps the ones most loudly professing the One True Way,
are the ones who stand most to gain
from the other person's losses?

---- Notes ----

Powerlessness.
Empowerment.

Victory or empathy?
Loss with compassion?

---- Early ----

Dangerous opinions:

That shape the world in toxic ways.
     "What if america defaulted on its debts?"
     "What if government go too big?"

What if the dangerous opinion didn't matter?

But if it did,
I would be the powerless victim of it.
The opinion must be stopped
Because the reality is too horrible to contemplate!

Or will it only be horrible reality that teaches us?


	16 November 2013 revised 29 August 2015 (unfinished)
	by Bill Cattey