Home » A mind is a difficult thing to change: Part 2–Therapeutic change

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A mind is a difficult thing to change: Part 2–Therapeutic change — 5 Comments

  1. Loved the Puzzlement lyrics. It’s been so long since I heard them I’d pretty much forgotten about the song. If art is quality of communication, the content side was sure carrying its weight in that composition.

  2. You write, parenthetically, “I would also add a fourth, the spiritual, but for the purposes of…political change we can safely ignore that one. (Although political change does have something in common with religious conversion in the sense that it involves leaving a social group and changing a deep and powerful belief system, spiritual change appears to occur by quite different mechanisms…”

    I am not sure we can ignore that spiritual. I am convinced that most people do not think it through, but I see a link between the two on a fundamental level. Since God has not spoken to you or me directly, the only way we can know about him is if he speaks to us. That is the message of the Bible; God speaking to us. The apostle makes this explicit in Hebrews 1:1-2, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” Why is that important? It cements the Christian belief system to the written word.

    The commonality? Conservatives are committed to the written word. Words mean something. Thus, the importance of the Constitution and its interpretation. Ancillary to this is tradition and principle. It is that concept that lies at the heart of a “a deep and powerful belief system.”

    Liberal/progressives see no need for the written word. At its heart is “good intentions,” i.e., emotion. Hence, liberals trash the Constitution, to use that document as an example. It is an impediment to their vision. Just consult President Wilson to get an idea of the liberal/progressive view of the Constitution.

    I suppose a second aspect of both the political and spiritual “deep and powerful belief system” is the change in one’s view of human nature. Christians, at least the orthodox kind, and conservatives both share a distrust of human nature. In Christianity this is referred to a ‘fallen nature.” In conservative thought, it is merely empiricism; taking account of the facts on the ground as opposed to wishful thinking about the benevolent character of people. Hence, again, the importance of the written word; people need to be explicitly bound to principles.

    This connection becomes explicit, at least anecdotally in my experience, when one attends an orthodox Christian church–by which I mean one that has ties to the theology of the Reformation. Invariably, almost all that attend such churches are conservative politically. They really believe that the Bible is the word of God (in its original transcript). Those words have meaning. And that sentiment is carried over to their political philosophy, where words have meaning as well.

    Anyway, an adumbrated comment on a connection between the two.

    I enjoyed reading your account.

  3. Pingback:You Can’t Change Anything From Your Living Room — California Political Review

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