CAMP RINGS

I made some notes for this post...they are in caps below.

FOR EMOTIONAL OR INTELLECTUAL REASONS
Ever notice that when people argue about politics, ethics and the like, virtually no one ever changes their mind, no one ever "sees the light". Virtually everyone has the exact same position at the end of the argument as they had at its start.

I wondered about that and I think one reason that explains it is that the arguers come from different camps...one arguer may come from the emotional camp, where decisions are based "on the way I feel about the issue", and the other may come from the intellectual where decisions are based on facts, reason and logic. What one of them says is stopped at the gate of the other.

INTELLECT HAS GREAT ROOM TO CHANGE, EMOTIONS LITTLE
The way your emotions work, they are not directly within your power to change, the way your thoughtful conclusions are. New facts can directly and swiftly change your mind about an issue. But the emotional camper does not bring facts to the table, and is not particularly swayed by the ones the intellect camper does. Stalemate!

Since arguments are often based on what my position on the issue is likely to lead to, and where your position is likely to lead, they are both conjecturing about the unknown future. Hard to show the other guy that you are more clairvoyant.

EARLY TRAINING...RELIGION...START MOST CHILDREN IN THE EMOTIONAL CAMP
Because a youngster's intellect has not fully developed, it is natural that he or she would drift into the emotional camp. That is reinforced by exposure to religious sermons that are faith, that is, nonintellectually based. Any wonder the emotional camp is overcrowded and the intellectual camp is sparsely populated.

EMOTIONS WE HAVE, INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE HAS TO BE OBTAINED, AT A PRICE
Emotions are freebies. Infants have them, animals have some. But intellectual ideas have to be acquired and since man is blessed (cursed, some say) with the power of choice, they ought be studied before acquisition. The price? Time, effort, dedication, money.
Which attracts more?

SPILLOVER...BEING INTELLECTUALLY RIGHT EVOKES CONFIDENCE, PRIDE, SELF ESTEEM...THERE IS NO "EMOTIONALLY RIGHT"
"Right" requires proof of meeting an objective standard, a factual standard, and it can be found only after thoughtful analysis in the intellectual camp. There positive rewards for doing that well. On the other hand, one person's subjective emotions are neither right nor wrong, they just are. And since many of us have shaky self esteem, and finding out we are wrong can hurt, which camp allures you?

EMOTIONS ARE MORE THE REAL ME
Many of us would say that: our emotions reveal the real us, who we really are, in a way our intellect does not. Ironic, since what distinguishes us from all other living things, what has made us the ruling species of the world is our intellect, with its power to create, to judge, to forgive, to laugh, to fantasize...but it is our emotions that many think defines us.

CROSSOVER? KNOW IT IN MY GUT
Then there are those who want to keep one foot in each camp and who profess to know something in their gut. Sorry. You know it, if at all, in your brain.

REPS INTELLECTUAL, DEMS EMOTIONAL, TEA PARTY BOTH?
Without benefit of a survey, it seems to me that Republicans tend to prefer the intellectual camp, though overwhelmingly most Reps straddle the fence, while Democrats seem to prefer the emotional camp...which helps explain why they responded en masse to candidate Obama's emotional calls for change, without knowing precisely what change, and made him President.

The growing Tea Party seek to attract voters in both camps. It argues intellectually for support of America's underlying principles, and frames its arguments in very emotional terms. That might work. Some surveys show them outpolling both Dems and Reps.

WEAR RING
It is a common practice for people to wear engagement and/or wedding rings on their left hand to announce their romantic and marital status. I suggest that it would be inordinately valuable if we wore a ring on our other hand connoting which camp we reside in. Perhaps a red ruby ring for the emotionalists inscribd "I feel I am", and a blue sapphire ring for the intellectuals inscribed "I know I am". Think of the wasted time and verbiage and argumentation to be saved, and the frustrations to be avoided. Think of the efficiency of it all.

"Looking for a single emotionalist? There's one. No, not her...she's an engaged intellectualist."

I like that.