In my opinion, it’s a lack of understanding of other people’s perspectives, as well as an inability to value other people’s unique gifts. Take the example of liberals and conservatives. Liberals and conservatives are not monoliths. They agree or disagree on every part of their party’s agenda, and have wildly differing opinions on issues. Some liberals may be pro-choice, but anti-immigration. Some conservatives may support the death penalty, but also support gun control. It’s different for everybody.
However, usually someone identifies as a liberal or conservative because of a core value or set of values that they feel are superior to the values demonstrated by the other party. Usually, liberals believe in social justice and have a strong anti-establishment bent, which leads them to have radical views on environmentalism, the division between church and state, and so on. Meanwhile, conservatives believe in personal freedom and equality of opportunity, and strongly support authority figures in church and state.
Most politically-indoctrinated people don’t understand that they have more in common than they think, and often are simply misinformed about certain realities that shape the truth of how situations actually are. For example, both liberals and conservatives actually believe in personal freedom. With liberals, it’s obvious when considering their support for things like LGBT rights, civil dissent, and artistic freedom of speech; conservatives often support gun rights, equal opportunity, and small government.
However, both parties are uneducated when it comes to certain realities which shape how personal freedom actually plays out in our society. Conservatives do not understand how things like poor rearing and lack of opportunity actually affect real human beings, which leads them to be inappropriately judgmental of those who are poor or unsuccessful and intolerant when it comes to devising practical solutions to address poverty. Meanwhile, liberals have little conception of proven realities that contribute to social inequity, such as biological racial differences, the dangers of censorship when it comes to political correctness, and the fact of economic scarcity.
The reality is that the issues are hopelessly confused. In truth, conservatism and liberalism make no sense; they’re mirror images of each other, reflecting extremist positions when the reality is somewhere in the middle. It’s similar with all ideological divides and indoctrinated people. Pragmatism is often the only viable answer to solving many social and political problems. People who feel superior to others who are different often overvalue their own traits or morals and fail to explore the importance of the traits they are criticizing. Usually, such people are tremendously ignorant and indoctrinated and have little factual command of the moral issues involved.
It takes humility to understand why an unintelligent person may be “superior” to a smart one, an ugly person to a beautiful one, a liberal to a conservative, or a Satanist to a Christian (or vice versa). Not only humility - an extremely original and freethinking mind. Most people are not at that level spiritually. It doesn’t make them inferior, just flawed. It really takes tremendous analytical skill to challenge indoctrination, and most people are just not capable of it. It’s easy to spot a freethinker -s/he will not be arguing about issues of right or wrong, but instead will discuss the facts and frankly identify where a person seems misinformed… NOT stupid, evil or inferior.
Intelligence is useless or worse when not employed with moral rigor. Beauty is a travesty when it disguises a corrupt spirit. Liberal, conservative, Satanist, Christian… it’s all a matter of perspective. Truly enlightened people often feel inferior to others, not superior. Feelings of superiority are often the mark of an arrogant mind. Arrogance is the common cold of the human spirit - we’re all susceptible to it, we all experience it regularly, and we can’t get away from it. But when we encounter it, we can do everything in our power to resolve and release it. Even we are not “superior” to people who think they are “superior.” We must always remain humble.
Explanation:
