We Should Demand Curiosity
My biggest gripe with Trump is his total lack of interest in anything other than himself.
Once I worked with a guy who wasn’t a reader. He got his news from friends. He lacked any kind of intellectual curiosity. As a result, he believed whatever his close circle of friends told him, and in the end, it got him a lot of hot water.
No, my friend was not Donald Trump.
The fact that a reasonable person could assume that my friend was the President is sad. The problem both men have is they lack the curiosity and intellectual hunger to go read, to learn new things, and to challenge their worldview.
Crime & Punishment
I used to be staunchly pro-death-penalty. I made the usual assumptions about its ability to deter crime, and I think it’s fair to say some criminals richly deserve death. Then I did some reading. When I learned that, mostly because of the cost of the appeals process (which we really should have especially in death penalty cases) the death penalty is much more expensive than lifelong incarceration, it gave me pause. Then, when considering that innocent people have been, are, and will be executed, I began to wonder if death sentences were so much better than life incarceration. I’ve seen Lockup on MSNBC. Supermax isn’t a party. Those two reasons were enough to change my mind. In the words of William Munny, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”
Wrongness & Morality
This is the kind of intellectual rigor thinking people should engage in every day. On some things, I’ve become more liberal. With regards to others, I’ve become more conservative. Leaving past positions doesn’t make you wishy-washy, it makes you willing to acknowledge you were wrong.
I’m happy to be wrong. If I’m wrong, and I see it, I can change.
The problem with Trump and his coterie is they either do not see their wrongness, or they do not care. This is the recipe that makes for terrible Presidents like Harding and Hoover.
This isn’t to say we should all be un-moored. The guiding principle by which we may determine we are wrong is our moral compass. I’m pro-choice. For those who vehemently disagree with me, I think we can say we both think murder is wrong. In that way, we are guided by the same moral compass. Where we diverge is on the subject of when life begins. The problem with our president is that I don’t believe he has even considered the question, and if he has, he doesn’t care what the answer is so long as it enriches him.
