Reason

When a kidnapper takes someone away, holding a person hostage until demands are met, most people think the kidnapper is a criminal. The kidnapper might believe his cause is justified and his means reasonable, that his moral compass forced him to make someone suffer. And as the kidnapping is prolonged, the suffering is prolonged. The questions will start: Will the hostage be returned? Will authorities cave to the demands? Will the righteousness of one be justified in causing pain and suffering to the many?

Reasonable is an interesting word. It evokes a sense of cooperation and a handshake. To others it evokes weakness. Still others define reasonable as something defined by their hearts, and if the definition is not met by those around them, then the outside is unreasonable.

Welcome to the government. People who label themselves as reasonable are holding the country hostage. Why? They feel justified and righteous. They sense they are reasonable, yet everyone else is unreasonable.

Now, whether or not you like the Affordable Health Care Act, it doesn’t mean you’re any smarter than one person or another person. It means you have an opinion. It doesn’t mean you’re reasonable. It doesn’t mean you’re unreasonable.

Does your opinion justify hurting the many? We can certainly debate whether ‘Obamacare’ hurts many people or it doesn’t hurt a lot of people, but the debate would be a focus of opinions. Opinions are interpretations of facts. Interpretations are always based on where you get your facts and what lens you see those facts through. And opinions and debate are okay until your opinion leads to hurting the many.

It’s not an opinion that shutting down the government will hurt people. Closing down sections of the government WILL hurt people. It is not an opinion. It is a truth. I think this is something we can all agree on. But have we so much animus in our nation that our ‘reasonable’ opinions justify bringing our government to its knees?

I seem to hear a lot of “Screw everyone else…this is the way I want it to be.” I don’t hear much of anything else. It’s tiring and does no one any good.

So as the House of Representatives holds our country hostage because of opinions, because of self-righteousness, because in their hearts they are being ‘reasonable’, know that these representatives are playing a game of chicken. They are willing for you to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Thus is the beauty of being reasonable. You can take it to heart that no matter what the circumstances are, your definition of reason will justify your actions because someone else was being unreasonable.