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November 12, 2007

She survived a feminist mother

Thomas Lifson
Nancy Morgan writes a heartfelt and wise column in Rightbias.com on her mother:
A die-hard, take no prisoners, true-blue feminist. Armed with a hard-won PhD., she has made her life's work the counseling of the transgendered, the gay and the sexually confused. Honest work in which she is passionately invested. The only fly in the ointment is me, her conservative daughter.
Writing with compassion for her mother's path to this state, she sees the problem with personalizing the political:
Unfortunately, the mindset of most feminists today do not allow conflicting points of views to upset their hard-won worldview. In my experience, challenging any facet of feminism is taken as a personal attack. When what one thinks becomes what one is, it's human nature to interpret dissenting views as a personal attack.
And she doesn't just skewer feminists, the easy way out.
Having a feminist mother has forced me to make a genuine effort to try to understand a mindset totally at odds with my own. I now try understand the underpinnings of other views, the anti-American, Bush lied, 9-11 was an inside job type of view. Instead of writing these guys off as nut-cases, as my mother does me, I've found that it's more productive to try to understand how one came to adopt what I consider such a radical mindset. Some times I am successful. Most times I am not. But I try.
I couldn't agree more. I have spent a major part of my life trying to understand the inner logic, core (usually unspoken) assumptions, and other building blocks of unfamiliar mindsets, in foreign cultures, in business consulting, and as an academic and teacher.

Sometimes the human imagination is limited, but trying to understand your antagonist's mindset is an essential ingredient of wise strategizing. Careful attention to the inner logic of your opponent's rhetoric (and other analytical approaches) can usefully help you understand a mindset that is initially outside your understanding.

Nancy Morgan has written a valuable case study that is also moving,

Posted at 11:34 AM | Email |

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