Our political discourse today is marked by the prevalence of ideological discourse. To me, this is distressing. An ideological statement typically begins with something to the effect of "I believe." For example: I believe in universal health care, or I believe in a free market, or I believe in capitalism, or I believe in socialism. Ideological statements are often stated in the negative, such as: I am opposed to government intervention, or I am opposed to corporate influence.
Ideological statements polarize. They assume two sides. The speaker situates himself on one side of a conflict. Ideology always comes out at election time. It situates the debate at the level of what distinguishes us. It raises our adrenaline.
On the other hand, if you have a group of people who share a common threat and you need to work together to resolve that threat, ideological statements need to be avoided. All successful families know this instinctively. You don't start the conversation by saying: "I believe you are not thrifty enough." It implies that the person being spoken to lacks commitment to thrift, something we all agree is good, and raises his adrenaline. It prepares him to defend himself.
Instead of making an ideological statement, successful families are pragmatic. They stick to the problem at hand. "Hey, I'm worried about money. I've noticed that each month our balance is less than the month before. Do you have any ideas about what we could do about this?"
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