The privilege of being an old guy

What's the privilege?  I get to blather on about things, and not have to worry about what anybody thinks.  

I once saw a birthday card that I wish I would have purchased.  It showed an older guy standing with his arm around a younger one pointing to something on the horizon and saying something so ridiculously stupid that it was funny.

Inside, the caption was:  "One year older, one year closer to making up shit."

I knew, when I saw that card, that my time was fast approaching.  Yes!!!!!

Well, today I saw something in the South Whidbey Record that warmed my heart:  A marriage announcement for a gay couple.

The state of Washington recently approved gay marriage and legalized marijuana.  Vicky and I were one for two in that voting-- having voted against the legalization of pot.

Our reasons for voting against legalization were varied, but our feelings weren't strong.  One reason is nicely summarized by David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times.  Brooks is often considered a conservative, but I don't see him as one.  I think he has conservative views in terms of the benefits of a structured life, but he is a liberal in his thinking style and willingness to allow data to inform his opinions.  He also has a liberal thinking style in that he is not dogmatic--he can accept the gray areas of life.

The New York Times also recently ran a long article about genetically modified foods, and how a liberal city councilperson tried to deal with the fact that his liberal constituency refused to acknowledge the scientific evidence that there were no health risks from genetically engineered food.  And, further, that genetically engineered food could provide more and better food to people who otherwise had little access to good food. 

There is strong scientific evidence that Genetically Engineered Foods are no less healthy than are "natural" foods (whatever those are, since all foods have been modified over the years in one form or another), that organic foods are not healthier than conventionally-grown ones (although there may be other reasons to choose organic foods), and that childhood vaccines do not result in autism.  Yet, many who identify as liberals hold beliefs about these issues that are contrary to the results of the well-designed scientific studies.  It appears that many so-called liberals may not really be liberal at all, but are susceptible to the same biases that conservatives are regarding issues such as, for example, global warming:  "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts."

Folks:  Liberals are people who reason in certain ways--they aren't necessarily people who have certain types of beliefs.  And that way of reasoning is one that allows alternative views to be persuasive when the facts support them or logic demands them--in other words, they are aware of and take into consideration the notion of the confirmation bias and the power of this psychological mechanism in distorting judgment.   Liberals are also people who have a fundamental value that all people are equally inherently worthy of respect and decency.  Those two things (a liberal reasoning style and that fundamental value) are really the only litmus tests for being a liberal. 

OK.  Anyway, back to legalizing marijuana.  I also think our culture was better off before drugs were readily available starting in the early 1970s.  And I have seen too many people who get hooked on pot and never can get going in the morning.  We all pay for them in important ways. 

But, overall I was happy.  I'd much rather have "won" on the gay marriage issue than on the marijuana issue. I'm proud to be from Washington as a result of this change, and the article in the paper today really brought that pride home.  It's fair, it's right, it's good, and gives everyone the same rights to happiness (and sometimes misery, of course, but that's also good because it is just part of life).

My feelings about marijuana aren't nearly as strong as my feelings are about this issue--an important reason being that I don't believe there are sufficient data regarding the long-term effects of legalized marijuana in a culture like ours in order to be able to make an informed decision.  In some ways, I wish we had just stayed put for five years or so, and used Colorado as our experimental subject. Sorry, Colorado, but I would have been more than happy to have you be the first one out of the trench. 

Told you:  I'm an old guy with too much time on his hands.  Need to get back to hiking so I'm too tired for diatribes.