A couple of years ago a friend and I started talking about teen pregnancy. The conversation started out with this friend arguing in favor of teen pregnancy. Of course I (and those with us) were initially very skeptical. However, after a little discussion I began to see the many advantages to teen pregnancy. In fact, before I knew it, I was actually one of the most ardent supporters of this controversial idea.
Before I get to the point of this story, let me explain the argument itself. First, teen pregnancy as it exists today is indeed a tragic phenomenon that disrupts the lives of many teens. But, if society were to reevaluate itself and radically change, teen pregnancy could actually increase the standard of living and help maintain America’s position in the world. That would happen because as soon as teenagers were physically capable of having children, they would be encouraged to do so. However, as soon as a couple had a child they could return to school for college or go directly into the work force. They could also spend time traveling or exploring their interests, like many twenty-somethings do today. While all this was going on the babies would be cared for simultaneously by multiple generations, who would all be living close by. Because a generation would only be about fifteen years, instead of thirty, there would actually be more people to care for kids. Ultimately, this would also produce more workers, which would add to a strong economy and American wealth.
There was more to the argument than that—we talked about this for days—but that was the gist of it. I think the underlying assumption was that people should be as productive as possible, and that “adolescence” is an artificial stage in life where most people don’t contribute much. This plan would eliminate that relative unproductiveness.
Whether you’re convinced by this argument or not (and probably you are not), I bring it up to illustrate how we can convince ourselves that something is a really good idea, even if that idea is normally ridiculous or even quite repugnant. Though the discussion was never quite serious, I found myself believing that, given a radical enough social paradigm shift, the idea could work. In other words, I convinced myself to believe in this silly idea.
Though I haven’t thought much about this idea since, the experience itself led me to ask hard questions about belief in general. How often do we (or at least, I) allow lop-sided evidence to persuade us of outlandish things? How often do we choose a particular set of values based on something completely external to those values? For example, I remember when I first came to college and discovered that I was slightly more liberal in my politics than my peers. Once I realized this, and once I was labeled a “liberal” by my friends, I also found that I liked feeling different. I liked the style of being liberal.
As time has gone on and as I’ve studied more, I genuinely think I believe in ideas that align with the left side of the political spectrum (though I dislike political labels). In fact, I find myself drifting farther left the more I know. Still, I have to ask myself how genuine my beliefs really are. Would I have come to the same conclusions if I first hadn’t initially been attracted to the aesthetics of the ideology? Is there any way to adopt a set of values that doesn’t include, at least initially, a simple and visceral satisfaction with those values? I don’t know, but it seems that just about everyone—and I’m a prime example of this—chooses to believe something and then goes about justifying and explaining that belief. This can happen with hypothetical ideas about teen pregnancy, or it may be higher stakes ideas about politics, religion, social behavior, etc. In the end, what do we believe and how deep do those beliefs go? I think I am as earnest as anyone, but I have to wonder, how much can we trust ourselves? What does it mean to be genuine? How true are our truths, beliefs, and values?
Not that I'm agreeing with the teenage pregnancy thing, because I don't (for all sorts of reasons I'm sure you and your friends likely discussed), but on a semi-related note, I was thinking that it hasn't really been that long since teenage pregnancy (albeit typically in marriage) was a common event. I had a religion teacher patiently remind a student in my class who was freaking out about Joseph Smith marrying a fifteen year old that in the 1800s, the social phenomenon that is adolescence did not really exist yet. That's much more of a Me Generation thing. (In fact... my grandma was a parent twice over before she was twenty... she married when she was 17.)
ReplyDeleteAnd since "family" used to be a much more inclusive term (considering that many families included extended family living in the same home), what you're talking about sort of used to happen. Except for the traveling and schooling and so on.
Interesting.
I actually agree with you this time Jimmy. From a scientific point of view, we all like to believe we're being objective, but one of the biggest things I learned in graduate school is that science is far from objective in most cases. Even though back in middle school we learned you let observation determine the answer, in the real world it's actually the opposite. It's political. People come up with ideas and then go about trying to prove them. They generally scorn opposing ideas, without actually listening to them. That is part of the reason I didn't get a PhD. I was fed up with the politics and missed the idea of ideal science.
ReplyDeleteYour comments about convincing oneself of something that was formerly repugnant bring to mind the oft-quoted Alexander Pope lines "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, as to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the questioning of (the process by which one arrives at) one's views.
I don't think we can undervalue the importance of examining and reexamining the origins of the positions we take—at least, we will end up reinforcing and reaffirming the best of our views. But more often than not, we will expose biases, recognize contradictory beliefs, and reveal the faulty reasoning we are all susceptible to.
There is a great deal of intellectual and spiritual laziness that goes on as people simply adopt (or sloppily reason their way to) ideas, instead of putting forth the effort/research/faith to reach them.
Stellar post.