I programmed a robot once (and it got me to thinking)

[The Straight Story]

Way back in the early days of computers, the grand old 80's.

You told it how far to go, when to turn, etc, downloaded the info via an rs232 interface, and it obeyed.

I also re-coded the AI program called Eliza, and made it answer questions with more sexual content :)

Recalling all that tonight got me to thinking.

The real difference to me between the right and the left is our advancement in a quasi-tech sort of way. We have taken what we have learned, applied it, and advanced (or better, progressed).

The folks on the right keep trying to use the same programming to accomplish things, and never advance - hence the results seem pretty circular.

War is a solution to problems for them, offense to deter threats. They were programmed to destroy instead of finding other solutions. Violence is not always wrong, as in cases of self defense, but when it is the highest rated in your value system to accomplish goals you are not programmed to find ways to stop it and so you use it before other methods.

One could go on with similar analogies all night - but the core question arises 'why'; why are they unable to modify their coding to see other methods on a whole range of issues?

A person could leap out and shout religion as the answer. But that would be nothing more than a mask placed on the real issue.

It is about their core view on survival. Something the species as a whole strives for, but in different ways. To live their way, to perpetuate it and make it thrive requires not the acceptance of others but the removal of those who are not alike. Diversity is not a tool to a better world, but a threat to it. A virus if you that must be contained and eliminated from their system.

You don't like the Indians, the middle east has oil you need, etc and so on - and those people don't think like you do. So to make things stable you either enforce your ideals on them or eliminate them. You take to survive because your particular species is threatened - your programming structure must replicate and dominate. Allowing other programs to thrive means yours will die in your mind.

Progressives look to find the good in all variety of things and people, and bring those good things out and celebrate them. To learn from them. To embrace them. Ours is a true AI program that learns instead of repressing. There is no one way, there is a collection of ways that we learn from one another. We set common human boundaries based in love and compassion for the entire species, while they focus on a subset.

We try to understand the whys of people and what they do, they try to perfect new ways to eliminate people or make them just like they are.

Our side is not always perfect of course. We both often try to control some things, hence the nanny state term we hear often here. No one ideology is perfect because we are all so diverse that the term perfect is rendered useless as we scale it.

Both sides have decent people in them. Some folks are just misguided. As a progressive I try to look beyond who voted for whom or certain issues with the right, I try to be inclusive and understanding. I can see why some people are the way they are. That is the nature of being progressive and open minded.

Overall - The human race has a lot to learn, and the best way forward is to have progressive leaders lighting the way. We are a diverse species sharing a small planet in a huge galaxy. And we won't survive through war and death.