Caught Myself

I am taking a Critical Thinking class, which so far has shown me two important things:

1. There is an assumption (at least at my college) that students have a lot of trouble performing the act of Critical Thinking.
2. I am one of them.

I have performed well in tests and assessments, but I still have a lot of work to do in order to incorporate critical thinking into my life.

On one question, the teacher asked us about a politician's point of view.  We were to choose from a list of statements that supported this politician's point of view.  One of the statements was:

•   The politician believes society has a moral obligation to care for the poor.

Keeping in mind the fact that the politician in question is a devout liberal, I raised my hand and said: "Yes."  Then the teacher raised one eyebrow and asked my if I thought that the statement was only a liberal point of view.

Again, I said "yes."

Then, I was told that the statement spoke of society's obligations, not a government's obligations.

Chagrined, I was.  I jumped to an immediate conclusion that caring for the poor was only liberal belief and not a conservative one.  Furthermore, I assumed that the monikers "liberal" and "conservative" represented a concrete set of beliefs.

Reality says otherwise.  Not all liberals hold the exact same beliefs; nor do all conservatives.

My error in thinking was that I, a left-leaning independent, knew something without questioning where I received that knowledge.  In other words, why did I believe that liberals believe society has a moral obligation to tend to the poor?

This is the question  that I should have asked before I opened my mouth.  Instead of pulling away from my biases and looking at everything objectively, I let an inner sentiment drive me blindly along.  Basically, I just parroted a sound bite that I have heard and read countless times without really thinking about it.

So, I caught myself somewhat after the fact making an improper judgement and leaping to a conclusion without giving my assumptions due thought.