beliefs

I read somewhere that believing in any ideology too deeply to the extent of being dogmatic about it is going to be a problem. Whether it is capitalism, socialism, religions, political parties, organizations etc. I guess we need to have clarity on our principles and values that are immutable – like honesty, integrity, equality, humility. We probably should not take a centrist view on everything just to be politically correct and taking apparent merits of both sides of every argument. We can lean to one side based on our values, but needs to keep the eyes and ears open to what the other side is saying.

I say all this due to the increasing political divide in my community. I see my childhood friends, people who I played , studied or worked with, moving to extreme opposite sides of the political spectrum. Every argument they make is tinged with their ideology which is obvious to a third party, but they will never agree that they are prejudiced in any way. Their arguments are reinforced within the echo chamber that they are in. They don’t follow, listen, read or watch anything with opposing arguments long enough.

I read Charlie Munger’s quote “I never allow myself to hold an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do”. I would like to understand some of the arguments of opposite side deeper, why are they making that argument, what motivates them and why is it still wrong.