"-isms"

Today I went to an International Women's Day event to hear a friend speak. Little did I know the event was being sponsored by a rather militant political group. (sigh). What did I take away from the experience? NO GROUP HAS IT EXACTLY "RIGHT."

I speak about health care in this country knowing there is not one magic "cure" to all the problems that exist. I think sincere dialoguing is the way to discover ideas to help move us towards a positive outcome. If we choose an idea and close our minds off to everything else, we lose the opportunity to discover ideas potentially (and most likely) better than our original thoughts. Plus, we cement our feet and everyone else's feet to prevent forward movement towards any possible better outcome.

Systems of government (and every other gathering of people for a common cause) all have positives and negatives. When people become militant about one ideal or another, the goodness tends to leak out and leave the junk (of whatever system) stuck there to defend itself. People hold onto the "system" for what it could be, and not for what it is. Pick an "ism" any "ism" and you will find corruption just like you'll find the original ideal. So can we please stop already with the "this 'ism' is the only correct path" nonsense?

What we need to do is clean up the "isms" by cleaning up our individual consciences. When people as a whole stop lying, cheating, stealing, intentionally harming, etc... then maybe we would have a better handle of which "ism" really best aids society---however, at that point, maybe the label of an "ism" wouldn't even be necessary.

Until then, "everything in moderation" never rang so true.