UNDERSTANDING OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINIONS IS DIFFICULT
by Frank Newton
written Wed. Oct. 18th, 2023; posted to my blog on Sat. Nov.
9th, 2024
I think one of the reasons why liberals and conservatives
have trouble understanding each other is a general principle which people
rarely notice: namely, understanding other people's opinions is difficult.
Bernie Taupin wrote in a song lyric ("Country Comfort," recorded by Elton John on his album _Tumbleweed Connection_):
Down at the farm, they've got a new
machine.
Foreman says it cuts manpower by
fifteen.
But that ain't natural -- or so old
Clay would say.
You see he's a horse-drawn man
until his dying day.
To understand Clay's opinion, you have to understand what he means by "natural."
A first guess might be that he means natural according to its etymological sense -- "That ain't natural" means "That isn't nature's way." The reference to Clay being a horse-drawn man could reinforce that interpretation. We might feel that nature's way is for people to domesticate horses and recruit horses to help with the plowing.
But that is not my view of what Clay means by "natural." In my view, he means that it isn't natural for human beings to rejoice when other human beings are put out of work -- it isn't natural for people to be happy when trouble comes upon others of their own kind. To paraphrase Jesus and Lincoln, a species divided against itself cannot stand.
You can have a strongly held opinion without being able to put into words the logic or the thinking behind your strongly held opinion. If a real person had Clay's opinion and expressed it the way Clay expresses it in this song, it does not necessarily follow that the real person would be able to put into words for you a sentence like "It isn't natural for human beings to rejoice when other human beings are put out of work."
That's an example of the fact that understanding other people's opinions is not something that comes naturally to people. Before you can understand the rationale of other people's opinions, you have to get yourself into sympathy with them; and also need to get yourself into sympathy with other human beings in general. I am trying to.
Frank
