Modification of my article
Nov. 4th, 2004 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greybetaI wussed out last time, so I borrowed heavily from a friend to make my thoughts more clear.
The opposite of love
Daniel Tu
If someone asked you what the opposite of love is, what would you say it would be? The obvious answer would be hate, but that would not be the correct answer. Love and hate are merely strong emotions separated by a very thin line. The opposite of having a strong emotion would be having no emotion at all, i.e. indifference or apathy. Therefore, the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. Time and time again, apathy has proven to be a major source of disappointment for those involved with politics.
When John Kerry conceded to President Bush in the recent presidential election, liberals across the nation shook their heads in disbelief. How could this have happened? Kerry pounded Bush in every way: militaristically, politically, and even socially. Bush won because he responded in the way that made the most sense: socially.
As a whole, Americans are apathetic about anything that we believe doesn't directly affect us. For the most part, the war in Iraq doesn't directly affect us, unless we have a relative or friend in the field. We care much more about whether the new president will allow a terrorist to draw us into a land war on our home front. We couldn't care less about foreign policy because we believe that America, being the strongest nation in the world, could whip the rears of anyone who disagrees with us. Why should we care about what some bloke in France or Germany thinks about us? And we surely don't care about economic policy, because we believe in the American dream—that everyone has a chance to take advantage of life's opportunities to make it to the top.
However, Americans care about social issues because they are much more concrete to us. Abortion is something that the girl down the street could do, and that idea scares many of the people who care about the American dream for that unborn child. The same goes for same-sex marriages, since many Americans simply don't want to have to confront that issue. Many of them don't want someone openly living that kind of a life in their neighborhood. But to be completely honest, most people wouldn’t care about abortion or same-sex marriages if they could force everyone who believed in those things to live in one area of the country.
Bush took advantage of these sentiments to win the election, but let’s not forget that Kerry also played the game. By pushing the idea that Bush could lead us into another war, Kerry attempted to tap the vote of the sit-at-home-leave-me-alone Americans. Bush and Kerry brought up divisive issues and put it in our faces, so that husband fought wife, father fought son, and so on. Americans will still feel the effects of this "civil war" for years to come, as they realize what the people around them really thought about those emotional issues. Healing will be a long time coming.
This is where I respect Kerry for conceding graciously. He wants unity, and I believe Bush does too. It is in our best interests to come back together, despite our differences. That is what makes us America. I hope that Bush and the Republicans in Congress will work with the Democrats to assuage the pain, heal the nation, and work for a better four years. Is that too optimistic?
The opposite of love
Daniel Tu
If someone asked you what the opposite of love is, what would you say it would be? The obvious answer would be hate, but that would not be the correct answer. Love and hate are merely strong emotions separated by a very thin line. The opposite of having a strong emotion would be having no emotion at all, i.e. indifference or apathy. Therefore, the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. Time and time again, apathy has proven to be a major source of disappointment for those involved with politics.
When John Kerry conceded to President Bush in the recent presidential election, liberals across the nation shook their heads in disbelief. How could this have happened? Kerry pounded Bush in every way: militaristically, politically, and even socially. Bush won because he responded in the way that made the most sense: socially.
As a whole, Americans are apathetic about anything that we believe doesn't directly affect us. For the most part, the war in Iraq doesn't directly affect us, unless we have a relative or friend in the field. We care much more about whether the new president will allow a terrorist to draw us into a land war on our home front. We couldn't care less about foreign policy because we believe that America, being the strongest nation in the world, could whip the rears of anyone who disagrees with us. Why should we care about what some bloke in France or Germany thinks about us? And we surely don't care about economic policy, because we believe in the American dream—that everyone has a chance to take advantage of life's opportunities to make it to the top.
However, Americans care about social issues because they are much more concrete to us. Abortion is something that the girl down the street could do, and that idea scares many of the people who care about the American dream for that unborn child. The same goes for same-sex marriages, since many Americans simply don't want to have to confront that issue. Many of them don't want someone openly living that kind of a life in their neighborhood. But to be completely honest, most people wouldn’t care about abortion or same-sex marriages if they could force everyone who believed in those things to live in one area of the country.
Bush took advantage of these sentiments to win the election, but let’s not forget that Kerry also played the game. By pushing the idea that Bush could lead us into another war, Kerry attempted to tap the vote of the sit-at-home-leave-me-alone Americans. Bush and Kerry brought up divisive issues and put it in our faces, so that husband fought wife, father fought son, and so on. Americans will still feel the effects of this "civil war" for years to come, as they realize what the people around them really thought about those emotional issues. Healing will be a long time coming.
This is where I respect Kerry for conceding graciously. He wants unity, and I believe Bush does too. It is in our best interests to come back together, despite our differences. That is what makes us America. I hope that Bush and the Republicans in Congress will work with the Democrats to assuage the pain, heal the nation, and work for a better four years. Is that too optimistic?
