The Complexity Of It All
John Greavu
Professor Joan Tronto
POL 1201
19 December 2013
The Complexity of it All
In response to prompt #3:
How have your political views changed over the course of the semester?
In the time that has passed since the beginning of the course, my political ideology has gone through significant changes and I am no longer as firm about my beliefs as I once was. Prior to POL 1201, I would have described myself as a classic American “liberal” , both socially and fiscally. According to the Pew Research Political Typology Quiz, at the beginning of the course, I identified as a “Solid Liberal”. Taking the same quiz now, it seems I have shifted to the right a bit, now falling into the “Post-Modern” bracket. I am still very liberal on nearly all social issues, but have begun to question my previous stance on economic policy. If anything, I think I have finally begun to grasp the full complexity of politics, and perhaps that is why I am no longer so sure of myself. However, social issues still seem a bit more clear-cut to me. It seems that many of them are actually purely religious issues, whether people like to admit it or not. For example, there is not one logical argument in the entire universe (at least that I’m aware of) for why homosexuality and same-sex marriage shouldn’t be accepted by society. Maybe this is because I am utterly non-religious myself today, after being raised Catholic for the large majority of my life. Yet, I doubt my stance on this issue is due to any sort of confirmation bias, but rather, as I said, a complete lack of argument (and I wouldn’t consider any sort of scripture or sermon as an argument, as these themselves are not based on scientific evidence whatsoever). On issues such as illicit drug legalization, I seem to be falling in line with the philosophy of John Stuart Mill and the harm principle. I definitely still support full decriminalization of strictly personal use, as to me, I see nothing criminal about this. However, I struggle
Professor Joan Tronto
POL 1201
19 December 2013
The Complexity of it All
In response to prompt #3:
How have your political views changed over the course of the semester?
In the time that has passed since the beginning of the course, my political ideology has gone through significant changes and I am no longer as firm about my beliefs as I once was. Prior to POL 1201, I would have described myself as a classic American “liberal” , both socially and fiscally. According to the Pew Research Political Typology Quiz, at the beginning of the course, I identified as a “Solid Liberal”. Taking the same quiz now, it seems I have shifted to the right a bit, now falling into the “Post-Modern” bracket. I am still very liberal on nearly all social issues, but have begun to question my previous stance on economic policy. If anything, I think I have finally begun to grasp the full complexity of politics, and perhaps that is why I am no longer so sure of myself. However, social issues still seem a bit more clear-cut to me. It seems that many of them are actually purely religious issues, whether people like to admit it or not. For example, there is not one logical argument in the entire universe (at least that I’m aware of) for why homosexuality and same-sex marriage shouldn’t be accepted by society. Maybe this is because I am utterly non-religious myself today, after being raised Catholic for the large majority of my life. Yet, I doubt my stance on this issue is due to any sort of confirmation bias, but rather, as I said, a complete lack of argument (and I wouldn’t consider any sort of scripture or sermon as an argument, as these themselves are not based on scientific evidence whatsoever). On issues such as illicit drug legalization, I seem to be falling in line with the philosophy of John Stuart Mill and the harm principle. I definitely still support full decriminalization of strictly personal use, as to me, I see nothing criminal about this. However, I struggle