CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

Conventional Wisdom

Well it appears that we have Conventional Wisdom, Urban Legends and Contemporary Legends loose in the land nowadays. What is common and different between these three forms of informal mass beliefs or understandings? A common characteristic is that they must have a verisimilar quality in order for them to become acceptable to the general population. The differences are that conventional wisdom is a widely held belief that is generally accepted by the population at large and may or may not be true. Urban and Contemporary legends are the stuff of folklore, myths, rumors and misinformation. Eggheads prefer the term contemporary rather than urban when describing these legends; otherwise, they are the same. Here is a prime example of either conventional wisdom or contemporary legend. You make the call because I really don’t know.
“Conservatives are mean, stupid, greedy, stingy, evil, racist, bigots, ad infinitum.” Quite a list of really bad stuff, don’t you think? Pick any two. The two I will pick is meanness and stingy. I wonder if there is any scientific proof that conservatives are mean and stingy while liberals are caring and generous? It turns out there is. There have been endless studies done on this subject and I recommend that you read the Arthur C. Brooks book, Who Really Cares?, to get a definitive and formal answer (www.arthurbrooks.net/whoreallycares/about.html). I will quote from Michael Shermer’s book, The Mind of the Market, in relaying what the Syracuse University professor (Brooks) has researched and published in his book, Who Really Cares?
“When it comes to charitable giving and volunteering, numerous quantitative measures debunk the myth of “bleeding heart liberals” and “heartless conservatives.” The opposite, in fact, appears to be true. Conservatives donate 30 percent more money than liberals (even when controlled for income), give more blood,, and log more volunteer hours. And it isn’t because they have expendable income that conservatives are more generous. The working poor give a substantially higher percentage of their incomes to charity than those on public assistance of comparable income. In other words, poverty is not a barrier to charity, but welfare is. “For many people”, Professor Brooks explains, “the desire to donate other people’s money displaces the act of giving one’s own.”
I don’t think I could define a liberal or progressive any better than the good Professor has in the above statement. As a side note, I can only speculate why liberals and progressives try to advance conventional wisdom that hold that Conservatives are mean, stupid, greedy, stingy, evil, racist, bigots and probably other accusations I have not listed. I can only wonder why.