Friday, September 26, 2014
Do we really make choices for ourselves?
Recently I was watching tv with my mom and a political add for Dick Durbin came on. At the end, my mom pointed at the tv and said "My vote it always for Dick Durbin, you should vote for him when you're at voting age. Your sister should vote for him." And for a split second, in my mind I made a mental note of "vote for Durbin". But then it occurred to me, I just almost made a decision based on only what my mom told me to. I don't even know anything about Durbin or what he stands for. I started thinking about what other choices I might have made based only on what someone told me. As children, we always we told to do what are parents told us to but is that flowing into our decisions today? I know I'm not well politically educated and I probably should be. My parents defined themselves as Democrats and I just assumed I was one too. But now I'm not sure, I don't even think I knew what the difference was until 5th grade. I just always thought that I had to share the same political views as my family. But the views of our parents shouldn't dictate the choices and views that our generation has. We need to start making the choices ourselves based on our own opinions.
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I think the fact that you thought to yourself, "vote for Durbin" illuminates a very big problem in our society. A democracy requires a well educated populace to elect the most able citizens to the government, and much of America's youth has no idea what political candidates actually stand for.
ReplyDeleteI strongly admire your argument because I can relate to it. I, like you, am not as politically educated as I should be, therefore, many of my decisions are controlled by my parents beliefs. I also agree with your closing line and believe that I need to start ignoring opinions that are inherently etched into me and start developing more of my own. Nice post!
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