I urge everyone here at dKos to watch this short video of a lecture given my Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist specializing in moral psychology. It is an extraordinarily fascinating, persuasive, and informative lecture. I expect it will open the eyes of more than a few people, both liberals and conservatives.
Here's TED.com's description:
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.
Continued:
I tried to embed the video but couldn't get it to work so here's a link that will take you there:
http://www.ted.com/...
In order to make our world a better place Haidt urges us to first understand who we are. He says we are all self righteous, it's a normal human condition. He also says there is a phenomenon called "social entropy" which means that social order tends to decay - it's a sobering idea. He argues that we must understand each other, neither group is wholly right or wrong, and that in fact, we actually need each other to make a complete and stable whole. It makes sense to me.
Haidt ends his lecture by saying we need a, "passionate commitment to the truth and use it to make a better world for us all." I think there is much that we liberals can learn from this lecture and it will give many of us serious food for thought, and expand our own understanding of both ourselves and conservatives, and how societies operate.
Seems to me that Barack Obama has an innate understanding of what Dr. Haidt discusses. I think it explains why he is so insistent on a clean campaign and refuses to get pulled into the nastier side of campaigning. This lecture made me have a deeper appreciation for Barack Obama, his wisdom, his judgment, his self-control, and his moral fiber.
For those who don't know of TED.com, I'm very happy to introduce you to it. It's a very good resource full of worthwhile and interesting ideas and lectures.
By the way, if you think you have high moral standards, then take the morality quizzes at:
http://www.yourmorals.org/ and if you're interested, you can visit Dr. Haidt's website at: http://civilpolitics.org/...
I posted an earlier diary about this but it failed to attract any attention so I revised it hoping to make it more descriptive and easier get to the video.
Hope you all enjoy the lecture and get as much out of it as I think I have.