Principles
// November 29th, 2011 // 9 Comments » // Free Software, Project Mayhem
The Principles Meme
This morning I read the following in a blog entry: “I applaud him for sticking to his principles, and not compromising“. The person who wrote it didn’t even agree with the person he was referring too, and yet he was congratulating him for sticking to his principles. I’ve seen a bunch of similar statements recently. There’s also a similar, more self-congratulating meme where people are very proud that they are unwaveringly sticking to their principles no matter what.
I’m not sure where this comes from, perhaps it stems from religious roots? Perhaps from people who are afraid to admit that they are flawed in any way? Perhaps they have some agenda that they want to push?
What if no one ever compromised on their principles? What if, in South Africa during the Apartheid years no white person were willing to consider that anyone with a different skin colour could be considered an equal? What if people could never see women as equals and they could never get voting rights or other equal rights? There are many, many more concepts in the past that were rooted as moral principles and with the hindsight we have now, we can see that they were clearly wrong. Sticking to those principles would have been harmful. The sad thing is that today still, many concepts in society is flawed. So why do we choose to applaud people who are inflexible, unscientific and in my opinion, irrational?
The Scientists
I applaud the scientist types, the ones who are able to look at new information or evidence and are able to take a step back and say “Hey, maybe I should re-think this!”. I respect those who are willing to say “Perhaps I was wrong” and share they’re experiences with others to get wider feedback rather than the person who will relentlessly defend their position, typically using some absolutes to try to prove their point.
