Into the Heart of Darkness (part 1)

During the last week, I had been visiting with my parents and my brothers family. Now, they are all died in the wool, knee jerk liberals. This is somewhat unlike my own political bent. I don't think I'll have time to finish this though this morning, being on a strict vacation schedule and all, but this will mark the start of a short series of posts on my amateur attempts at cultural anthropology as I try to delve into the workings of the average liberal mindset. We had only a few political discussions because they often become 'heated' which does not improve the holiday mood, but did have two or three. Some topics discussed included:

• social security
• the "Great Society" social programs
• The debt
• SUV's and oil consumption
• Iraq
• "Bush lied"

As I had indicated prior to Christmas, I'm going to embark on a program known as "critical realism" to try to understand the liberal and conservative mindsets. I'll start by examining some of the stories my parents espouse to support their beliefs.