Someone of close relation to our extended family has proclaimed us brainwashed liberals.  Allow me the time to examine these words by definition and relation.

According to the Encarta® World English Dictionary, to brainwash is to impose a set of usually political or religious beliefs on somebody by the use of various coercive methods of indoctrination, including destruction of the victim’s prior beliefs.  Said acquaintance of our family explicitly branded this label upon our chests.  We’d been brainwashed and, therefore, it would be best not to consult us for political views and opinions.  As far as I know, I’ve never been a conservative thinker.  I’d been raised with no authentic political beliefs.  As a teenager, politically minded heavy metal and hardcore punk was unveiled to my politically virgin mind and forever it was altered.  The soundtrack to my teen years aided my evolution of political and social education by assuring that I think.  Indeed, think.  Strong term that.  Since that point in time, excusing various lapses in progressivism due to the actual brainwashing I received during my stretch the military, I’d indeed never been brainwashed to be a liberal.

Moving on to our second term, again according to the Encarta® World English Dictionary, being liberal is to be tolerant of different views and standards of behavior in others or is to favor gradual reform, especially political reforms that extend democracy, distribute wealth more evenly, and protect the personal freedom of the individual.  Rather simple.  I acquiesce.  As surprised as some of you may be, I am surely a liberal.  By that definition, though, being liberal does not seem so malicious as some of the liberal media such as Sean Hannnity, Rush Limbaugh, and that bastion of reason and wisdom, Michael Savage, would have you believe.  Actually, being liberal is most likely the very raison d’être that allows my emotions to not burn as curdled milk while listening to such empty avenues of disinformation and mendacity.

Having defined both terms now, is it truly feasible to extend ill feelings with such reproach by dubbing us brainwashed liberals?  Probably not, because everyone included in the circle of ill will has never been conservative and, therefore, could not be brainwashed to liberal thought, so, why the affixation of the label at the outset?

My assumption is that our friend, the wordsmith, has heard much by way of his conservative Christian church concerning the brainwashed liberals that dance naked in the streets worshiping Pan.  Hell hath no fury like an army of liberals burning in eternal damnation.  I’ve had the pleasure of debating philosophy with this fine young, but greatly misguided, man.  I was being given time worn arguments concerning the “first mover” as proof there is a God.  Mind you, I was not debating that there is no God.  No, my position was that the existence and the non-existence of God has never and will never be proven as God is not a being that can be formed into a concrete concept.  Still, he pressed on: so much for the philosophy behind philosophical discussion.

It is this certain misguided sequence of thought that truly allows for brainwashing, as most people who become born-again Christians have a reason to be saved as they say.  There is indeed a transition from one approach, deemed by the simple as evil, to another, deemed again by the simple as being saved.  Is not the hard-pressed work of those that proselytize specifically aimed to brainwash those that have not accepted Jesus into their hearts, as born-again Christians are wont to say?  The point here is that the fundamental difference between my family, being largely liberal, and conservative Christians is that we do ponder the ways of democracy and that our views do not come from steady brainwashing.  Our thoughts are not stripped away and reattached as freely as Christmas ornaments. 

Great segments of our struggle lie in the contemplation concerning the application of democracy in its most exposed form: equality.  This allows me, as well as our detractors, to accomplish exactly what is running its course at this instant: discourse.  The protection of personal freedom is what grants you the freedom to believe that the Bible is the literal word of God and allows me to disagree.  Because I am liberal, the many avenues of spiritual reflection are available to me and therefore leads me to accept views of the many, including those of conservative Christians, no matter how wrong I think they are, and do not think me soft, because I do believe conservative Christians are very wrong and dangerous to themselves and to the world, much like other radically conservative religions are across the world.  Lucky for those of you who are religiously radically conservative, we liberals are trying to keep your freedom to worship as you please a basic right. 

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