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| "Meeting with a group of Afghan Freedom Fighters, Mujahideen, to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan, especially the September 1982 massacre of 105 Afghan villagers in Lowgar Province" (1983), photograph by Michael Evans |
155. Kahneman and Tversky worked well together although they were, in many respects, opposites: "Danny was always sure he was wrong. Amos was always sure he was right. Amos was the life of every party; Danny didn't go to parties. Amos was loose and informal; even when he made a stab at informality, Danny felt as if he had descended from some formal place. With Amos you always just picked up where you left off, no matter how long it had been since you last saw him. With Danny there was always a sense that you were starting over, even if you had been with him just yesterday."
Many of us have had relationships with people who are different than us. After all, no two people are the same. But friendships between people who have different political or religious views is rarer. Have you ever been friends with someone or had a teacher you liked whose view of the world or a particular significant issue was diametrically opposed to yours?
Once, I helped my basketball coach with one of his political classes. He was one of my favorite coaches, but we disagreed politically. He was apart of the democratic political party where I chose the republican political party. We debated constantly in class over many political issues. However, he never allowed our disagreement in political views to change his stance on me or how he treated me. His respect for me and my differing opinions profoundly changed the way I view disagreements. He taught me that you can argue or disagree, but you must always treat them with respect.
ReplyDelete-Megan Lewis
I’ve always had naturally coarse, curly hair. That seems like such a small thing, a thing that shouldn’t matter, but this simple thing that I can’t change, created a very different reality for me than my siblings who had naturally straight hair. I grew up in an area where racism was very normalized and still is. I lived in a predominantly white area, and went to a predominately white school, there were very little people of color, if any in my school. Although I am white, racial slurs were hurled at me because of the texture of my hair. I went to teachers and administrators and was told to just shake it off, even by my parents, no one thought it was a big deal at all. It is shocking how normalized it was, instead of them stopping, I had to accept it. Now, years later, because of this, I am able to empathize with people of color more. My social media accounts are full of BLM posts. This doesn’t sit well with people from my area or even my family. My parents refused to let me attend protests. Our view points on this issue are very different. Like Megan, I agree that we must treat people with respect, even when our opinions vary, however, when it comes to basic human rights, equality and fairness, I will not waver from my stance, and find it hard to respect people that don’t stand up for others, especially for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
ReplyDeleteEach of the different generations has different views, and many of the generations tend to argue because of the difference in views. I have worked as a nanny/personal assistant for an elderly lady and her grandkids for the past three years, and I love my job. However, some of my political views differ from my bosses. When the Black Lives Matter protest was in full swing I was excited to see the outcome and support our town of Ada had, while she thought that the protest was overly exploited and didn’t understand why the protest was just black lives matter compared to all lives. In Oklahoma, the most prominent religion is Baptist, and as someone who is Catholic, I tend to have different religious beliefs compared to my peers and friends. Whether it’s my view on abortion, afterlife, or simply the way I pray, many people like to tell me I am wrong. However, my friends and people, I’m close to understanding that we all believe differently and are usually just curious about my beliefs instead of being defensive of theirs.
ReplyDelete-Emily Ford
My high school History teacher has always been an avid Anti-Trump supporter, while I am an avid supporter. We have had many conversations about President Trump and all that he has said and done. There were times that I talked to him about the good things Trump did, and my teacher realized that those things were good and deserved to be recognized. On the other hand, he had me do projects about Trump and the things he said or did that were wrong or inappropriate, and I did agree. Any talk we had about political views was always respectful and intellectual. Although our views differed very much, It never once altered my view of him, and he never treated me any differently than the other students.
ReplyDelete155. I had a football coach that had opposing political views and he was a huge influence on me. He gave me advice for life and always gave his information without bias. Given today's political climate he handled himself very well and gave me a great leadership role in my life.
ReplyDeleteI have the same opinions as a majority of the people in my hometown. I had the same opinions as my teachers growing up. As for my friends, we never really discussed these topics. Going into college though, I have had professors and friends that I disagree with when it comes to politics. Fortunately for my friends and I, we are very understanding of the reasoning behind our opinions. This has also been the case with my professors as well. I have not discussed religion much with a person that disagrees with me. My close friends believe in the same thing as me. There are some more specific aspects of the religion that we may disagree on, but the fundamentals of it we agree on.
ReplyDeleteMy horseback riding instructor and I have very different political views, she is very conservative whilst I’m very liberal. Typically politics don’t get brought up in our conversations, but on the rare occasions they have it’s been awkward to say the least. When those infrequent moments have happened, I feel the need to not betray my feelings and express my different beliefs and perspectives but try to do so with evidence, logic and not in a combative tone. In most other ways we get along perfectly fine and have nice conversations. In order for the relationship to continue, I have found it best to try to avoid those political discussions or comments and navigate around them when it happens.
ReplyDelete1) I made a new friend at the beginning of my junior year of high school with a girl who was an atheist, so we obviously had dramatic differences in our views of faith. And though we had such drastic differences, I always tried to treat her like I would my best friend or a sibling, with love and compassion. We didn’t agree on many things, but that didn’t stop us from being friends and hanging out together on weekends or at football games. We’ve always enjoyed each other’s company, and when we talk about things we disagreed with, she was always quick to listen, never tearing down my faith, and I treated her with the same respect that I was shown.
ReplyDelete- Parker Milligan
I have been friends with this girl for a long time, so last year we decided to be roommates and this year we are suite mates. I knew I was pretty minimalist when it comes to decor and makeup and I knew she was not a minimalist. However, I did not know to the extent in which this girl goes hard with decor. She had three times as many bags as me both move in days and loves to decorate for every holiday. Meanwhile, I hang a few pictures on the wall and put my succulent on the windowsill and I'm good to go.
ReplyDeleteI am never upset or mad about how she decorates and even has me help her set it all up. It makes her happy and she is really good at these things, so I will help her and support when she needs it! Albeit, I do not ever see myself going to such lengths on decor and makeup as she does.
-Adeline Daniel
My horseback riding instructor and I have very different political views, she is very conservative whilst I’m very liberal. Typically politics don’t get brought up in our conversations, but on the rare occasions they have it’s been awkward to say the least. When those infrequent moments have happened, I feel the need to be true to myself and express my feelings, beliefs, and differing perspectives and opinions and try to do so with evidence, logic and not in a combative tone. In most other ways we get along perfectly fine and have nice conversations. In order for the friendship to continue, I have found it best to try to avoid those political discussions or comments and navigate around them when it happens.
ReplyDelete