Are Leaves Liberal or Conservative?

One beautiful autumn day in Blacksburg, I was driving my niece home and exclaimed:

"Look, the trees are turning colors."

"No, Uncle Dave, the leaves are turning colors," she replied, correcting me.

Of course, she was right. Five-year olds usually are.

Leaves. They are beautiful. But we don't have the time to give each and every leaf a name of its own, so we call them 'leaves.' When we use the term 'leaves' we eradicate all the differences between individual leaves.

The French philosopher Rousseau called this eradication the 'violence of the letter.' I think we do the same thing when we label people. This is why I resist labels, for myself and others. The act of labeling does violence to individual people.

The labels 'conservative' or 'liberal' are used frequently. I have friends who label themselves as conservative and friends who label themselves as liberal. I like them all, they are my friends. They ask me whether I am conservative or liberal and I answer "what time is it?"

If you picked 100 issues and I answered conservative on 51 of them, does that make me conservative? What about the 49 issues I'm liberal on?

It depends on the issue and the context. I understand there is a dogmatic conservative and liberal stance on many issues. What if I think both dogmatic positions are wrong? What if I think being a partisan precludes one from intelligently thinking about any issue?

Are we back to my being a heretic again? Probably.

The desire to label is understanding. As with leaves, we don't have the time to differentiate each individual's position. But I propose a method other than two-dimensional linear labeling.

A circle has two axis, one from pole to pole and the other from equator to equator. I propose one axis be labeled moderate at one end and zealot at the other end. The other axis would be labeled conservative and liberal at its ends.

On any given position, you would locate your feelings on an issue along the surface of the three-dimensional sphere. If you are close to the conservative position on an issue, you would move toward the conservative position on the north-south pole. If you are somewhat conservative you would be more toward the equator. On the east-west axis plot how strongly you feel about the issue, from moderate to zealous.

If it's easier, think of the two axis as latitude and longitude. After plotting your 100 positions, a pattern would emerge on the surface of the sphere. Everybody's pattern would probably look different.

If we are all different, it becomes more difficult for us to be divided up into two camps that hate each other. That would be a worthy goal.

I have friends that are conservative and I have friends that are liberal. I don't want there to be hate or enmity between us. We can be different without being hateful. Please don't tell me that is a heretical position. It shouldn't be.