We Americans have learned that our feelings are important. In fact, they are the "truth," since they uniquely reside within us, unexpressed or not. If I "feel" threatened, or angry, or joyful, that's how I feel. Our feelings, truthful and all, really exist and remain unassailable..."don't tell me how to feel, don't tell me what I feel." All these expressions validate and empower us, as truth, and true they are.
Somewhere though, we learned that if we precede a statement with "I feel that..." then this statement too is "truth," since after all my feelings are the truth. Ask anyone in therapy, or in church. Herein lies the problem. Just listen to people you don't agree with. How many politicians, christians, heretics, killers, preface their beliefs with "I feel"?
If I feel immediately and mortally threatened by an encounter with a field mouse, or a garter snake, my feelings are the truth, for me anyway. However, my feelings in this regard arise from irrational beliefs. These beliefs, then, can be addressed positively, and our feelings about mice and snakes can change. Who needs more anxiety?
We hear it all the time, we say it all the time; I do it too, though I try to catch myself. In this way, my political beliefs can be rendered as absolutely beyond dispute. If you "feel" that same-sex marriage is wrong, and you "feel" that way because of an irrational allegiance to a supreme being, or a desire to control others, then you must be right, given the strength of your "feelings." Yeh, well I "feel" differently, and I must be right because my "feelings" are stronger than yours, and rational to boot.
So we see debates where the feelings of speakers and constituents dominate their presentations and arguments, at the expense of any meaningful data or ideas, or honesty. We remain awash in fallacy, expressing our feelings. It works too. I appreciate politicians like Bernie Sanders; he speaks passionately and includes the information which actually supports his arguments.
Supporters of the Confederacy, or forced birth, or American Exceptualism certainly feel strongly, I get that. Still, they are full of it.
Most of us have been exposed to the chart characterizing different feelings: happy, sad, angry, fearful, hungry, and so on. All these feelings can be expressed in one word, and that’s the key. More than that and likely it’s about opinions.
