I am not a fundamentalist. I may be fundamentally anti-fundamentalism. Being fundamental just doesn’t seem to be a part of my nature; it is not who I am. How could it be? I am both Asian and European. I am an American born abroad whose roots tracing back to the founding of this Nation. My American family is from the South and the North. My dad is a Catholic, my mom was a Buddhist. I don’t exactly fit in most survey boxes, and while I am comfortable with this yin yang life, others seem to have a very difficult time with my lack of desire to adhere to any one set of fundamental principles. I let go of others’ expectations of me a long time ago, and I’m surprised with how hard my refusal to accept their expectations has been for some.
For instance, I am definitely not a religious fundamentalist. I still think of myself as a Catholic and at the same time, I have never really bought into the orthodox of Catholicism or Christianity as the only pathway to heaven. Reading more about Buddhism and the Jesuits validated a lot of what I perceived as similarities between Eastern and Western philosophies and religions. Yet, more than one Catholic in my life has been dismayed at my dismissal of the Catechism and the patriotically view of all roads to heaven flow through Catholicism whether to “good” person knows it or not. I find that logic dripping if not drowning in hubris and pride. I find the forcing of one’s belief onto another as a violation of our basic humanity. I prefer the intertwining of philosophies to find the meaning message for each of us. God is expansive enough to be in multiple faiths.
I am not a market fundamentalist. I still believe in capitalism and free markets, yet markets are not the only nor the best solution to all that ails us. Capitalism exists as a part of an ecosystem of other human made constructs like community and government and is a garden requiring tending, not a forest to run wild on its own. Because the market is not solution to everything, it should not be left unfettered. It should work in partnership with government and society to increase returns to scale, or grow the economy. I agree with Mike Munger that markets are excellent at promoting division of labor and specialization, and at the same time, markets have issues which should be taken into account when we design the boundaries.
I am not a political fundamentalist. I see value in the platforms and policies of both major political parties in the US. The diversity of approaches creates better policies overall for America. We need a balance between big government and small government to find the right size government; a balance between local and federal policies to meet the needs of the citizens; to leverage the scale of large institutions and the nimbleness of small departments.
I’m not a fundamentalist. I look at false binaries and ask, why can’t we have some combination of both?
What I am feeling now the rise of fundamentalism choking out discourse, ideas, and civility. I feel the demands of others expecting us to think one way, believe one thing, and behave one way. The pull of the comfort in binary positions instead of the messy beauty of a breadth of the spectrum. The rise of hate fueled language and actions based on fundamentalism appalls me. The dehumanization of someone who doesn’t follow the same beliefs troubles me. We seem to have forgotten our fallibility and its cure grounded in dialogue and curiosity. I miss being with people who are seekers, who know they don’t have all the answers and are comfortable searching for nuggets of truth in multiple places, harvesting knowledge along the way. I don’t want to be with people who have all the answers. I find them rather dull and boring. I prefer those who live curiously with a twinkle of delight when they find conflicting insights.
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