This is a subject with so many ramifications that I hardly know where to begin. So, I will start from the only "point of view" that I can possibly defend--how I see the world through a lens that is mine and mine alone.
As I see it, "point of view" is somewhat misleading in that what matters is not what the eyes see--that is, one's environment--but how that image is deconstructed in the mind of the observer.
I will not attempt to expound upon the reasons that one person might look upon an image of President Obama and see the Messiah and another Evil Incarnate. Still, it is nearly impossible to come up with a story that explains my truth on this question. I didn't just wake up one morning and decide to be a liberal. No; one's political "point of view"--the only one that truly matters to me--is derived from the sum of decades of living, learning and being loved...or not.
My father was born in 1911. The only time I saw him cry was when he was describing how his parents had lost their farm--their four sons' legacy--to foreclosure during the Great Depression. He was an ardent admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and spent most of his adult life assisting farmers to obtain loans from the insurance company he worked for so they wouldn't lose theirs. His work helped him to feel of use to society and he understood the important role that government can play in lifting people out of despair. Despite having been dealt a bad hand himself as a victim of polio at the age of 20, he was a lifelong Democrat.
Mother, on the other hand, usually played the role of victim. I don't want to say too much about her, since "Mom" is the subject for next week. Suffice it for now to know that she was never comfortable in the role of mother and housewife and felt that Opportunity had walked right past her door without so much as a nod in her direction. She could never share in the joy of my little successes, nor could she even stand to hug or be hugged. She was racist and took no particular interest in politics, though I'm fairly certain that she usually voted Republican.
Theories abound as to why liberals and conservatives are the way they are. I agree with people like George Lakoff who think it has something to do with early home life. He believes that conservatives tend to have grown up in homes that are dominated by a strict, disciplinarian father, where punishment for nonconformance is swift and painful. Liberals, in contrast, are raised by nurturing parents who believe that honorable behavior can be modeled and taught through example.
I grew up in a household with one nurturing but passive parent and one who was strict but also passive. How I turned out to be an activist lefty I cannot explain other than to observe that I identified with my dad's sense of compassion and general love for people. He, at least, could hold me on his lap and read the Sunday comics to me while pointing to the words so that I could learn many of them by the age of four. I admired him. I feared her.
My point-of-view most likely comes from my assimilation of my dad's politics through association. As I have aged, my politics has evolved far to the left of anything my father could imagine, even as the politics of the Right has moved just as far in the opposite direction. Perhaps if he had not succumbed to a stroke in 1990, he and I would still agree on most political issues. At the very least, I would like to be able to tell him how much he had influenced my point-of-view. I think he would take some satisfaction from knowing that.
© 25 November 2013
About the Author
Soon after, I retired and we moved to Denver, my husband's home town. He passed away after 13 blissful years together in October of 2012. I am left to find a new path to fulfillment. One possibility is through writing. Thank goodness, the SAGE Creative Writing Group was there to light the way.
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