Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Facts; whose side?

One of my best friends is a conservative with whom I've been having political "discussions" for decades. Recently I said to him: "Mark, you frustrate me. Even though I had ten years of college, and you had none, and you're always telling me how smart I am, you never seem to lose an argument with me. In fact, you seem to win most of them. He replied: "maybe that's because I have the facts on my side."

He's wrong, of course. Given any set of facts, an infinity of interpretations is possible. Facts are meaningless without interpretation. WE all seem to think we have the facts "on our side", and, for the most part, we do. When we learn to understand interpretations different than our own, we achieve open mindedness.

My conservative friend should simply have taken credit for being a good debator. The facts are no more or no less on his side than mine, or yours. I wish I had thought to say that to him, I might have won my first ever argument..but probably not..

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