polarization entrepreneurs? -- Clatsop County Matters

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Subject: polarization entrepreneurs?

Author:
Sandy

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Date Posted: 07/ 1/06 12:40am

I recently heard about polarization entrepreneurs on television tonight. They attempt to create communities of like-minded people being aware that these communities will not only harden positions but also move them to a more extreme point.

The program went on to show how cities could be totally divided on everything, with extreme thought prevailing. It was rather chilling.

I like it when we have confictions, and of course I like it when someone agrees with my confictions, but this program was sort of scary in how it showed the extremes. These people showed no tolerance for ideas other than their own. All ways of thought were either strongly for or strongly against.

I see the lables that get slammed against people and it is rather alarming. One cannot express a single thought without some sort of pigeonhole being empressed on them. YOu can see it with so many controversies right here in our county. I hate expressing ideas because I hate being labled something I know I'm not but you sound like a fool as an adult saying, "Nah-uh, that's not who I am or what represents me."

I wondered why people felt the need to do it. I guess it is this polarization? Maybe some people are paid to do it?

When I looked it up on the net I found this info. "Polarization is sometimes an excellent strategy. If the goal is to move people to a more radical position, and to entrench their positions, it's often a good idea to try to ensure that like-minded types are speaking mostly with, or least listening mostly to, one another. (Some student organizations are products of polarization entrepreneurs.) Authoritarian governments try to plan polarization, and sometimes they succeed; Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm can be seen as case studies."

It might be comfortable inside of polarization but it seems pretty certain that extremes in thought and philosophy are damaging in communities and manipulative. I think most political parties have a practice of polarization. It is hard for everyone to feel like they are honestly being looked after in government when the political parties are based so strongly in platforms and agendas. If they have a committed agenda how can they be adaptable to the issue at hand in the times and local environment and how do I know my best interests are always being looked at no matter if I am a part of the political party who voted for the person?

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