Political Socialization Essay

Political Socialization
"Growing Disbelief." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
Atheism is steadily growing in America. From 2005 – 2012 the number of people who call themselves atheist has increased from 1% to 5% while the number of people who say they are religions has dropped from 73% to 60%. This change may have come from a new wave of atheism called “new atheism” these “new atheists” are almost a religion in themselves, fighting to remove Christian symbols from currency and from things like the 9/11 memorial.
I believe that the growing number of atheists in America comes from an increased acceptance of religion and a larger focus on proper education in America. This increased acceptance will likely lead to more
people becoming atheist or simply fewer people choosing a religion at all. In my opinion this is a good thing because it will show that America is a more accepting place and allow more people the freedom to focus on things other than religion in politics. I have developed this opinion through many events in my life and also through the way I was taught and raised. When I was young I would always ask my parents questions about the universe and how we came to be (I was a very existential child). I believe that my parent’s response is one of the most important factors in who I am today. My mom didn’t give me a straight answer, my parents have never been very religious. And although I was baptized as a child my mom mostly did that to please my grandfather, she never forced any one religion on me. My parents gave me the freedom and opportunity to choose what I believed in and never pressured me into any certain belief. I think that their acceptance of whatever I chose is what has lead me to be a more accepting person today. It is my acceptance of people from other religions and belief systems that has led me to form this opinion. Had my family raised me a devout catholic like my grandparents I might not be so happy that the amount of people who believe in god is dropping. Thanks however to my upbringing I am capable of accepting others religions and understanding that more diversity in faith is a better world. Beyond just my family upbringing I believe that school has influenced my opinion as well. Not too long ago if you were in school you might be forced to say a prayer or follow some sort of religious procedure. In fact still today in America students are being punished for refusing to say “under god” in the pledge of allegiance or flat out not reciting the pledge at all. I believe that I was born in an ideal time for religious freedom as in school I have never had any religious pressure from my teachers or from the lessons we learned. No matter the religion of the student or of their family all the schools that I attended focused on teaching information that we believed to be the most correct rather than teaching any specific belief. Thanks to this I have never been pressured into thinking that one way of thought is the correct way and instead I have been encouraged to allow diversity in the world around me. I think that if I were taught to believe in one idea then being as stubborn as I am, I might be very against anyone who challenges my belief. Thanks to the school system teaching acceptance instead of intolerance I am able to open my eyes to all beliefs and also to be able to keep religion out of things like politics and science where unfortunately it is still quite grounded. In elementary school I never really talked with my friends about politics or belief or anything. It wasn’t until middle school where I began to talk with my peers about things like beliefs and what not. One of the things that I have been blessed with is living in Toronto which is the single most diverse city on the planet. Thanks to this diversity that I have spent my entire life around I have been able to be a lot more accepting of other people. I never have cared weather someone believed in something different or looked different. To me they were all just people and if I hadn’t grown up with such a diverse group of friends then I would believe that people outside of my “group” are wrong or shouldn’t be accepted. It’s thanks to my upbringing in Toronto where I constantly get to witness the benefits of the diversity of religion and of culture that I am able to appreciate others for who they are not what they look like or what they believe in. The first time I have ever seriously followed politics was 2008 when history was being made as Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States.
Since that year I have slowly followed politics more and more and a large amount of my information comes from the media. Media never really shaped my political socialization but rather it reinforced that which I had already believed in. shows like Last Week Tonight, and The Daily Show which are simply comedy shows but have been praised for their political analysis. Thanks to shows like those and many other shows which aim to present facts with a mostly unbiased opinion I have been able to maintain the same level of political socialization that I have had for many years. Media has been a huge help for me in getting facts on an issue and informing myself on things that I had never heard of before. Although I don’t believe that media has shaped my political socialization I know fully that without it I would be basically completely uninformed on all the happenings around me. The knowledge that I gain from media has allowed me to shape my opinions on a topic and in a year when I can vote I imagine that it will be a large factor in many of my
decisions.