Is "Buy American" Patriotic?

Ok, I try not to raise too many feathers on Think Daily, but once in a while I take a chance.  I do not want anyone to unsubscribe.  Last week I threw it out there with great success with the Income Inequality ideas.  Here we go again.

I am an American.  I was an Eagle Scout.  I recited the Pledge of Allegiance growing up nearly every day.  My parents were in fraternal organizations such as the Moose Club and the Elks Club, who revered America and the flag.  I love my country (what the government has become – not so much).  I love the land, the people, the diversity and the spirit.  I mostly love freedom.  It is my number one value.

When I was a young man, I knew nothing about economics, other countries, or the benefits of free trade.  I only knew I was a GM guy; Chevy guy.  It was easy for me to call out the “Buy American” rally cry.  Wasn’t it supporting our own communities and saving American jobs?  Seemed like it to me.  

I was ignorant.  We all say stupid things when we don’t know enough about a thing.  I am sure I still do it, but I am far more careful now, and often reserve judgment, knowing I probably don’t know enough about a situation, and I don’t want to say something dumb that I will have to retract later.  But, alas, we can never know everything about all we speak of, and we still say dumb things and support issues we are on the wrong side of.

We get conditioned.  Our parents told us something, and talked about it in the house and at the dinner table.  Our professors told us something too.  These are older wiser people and they must be right?  Aren’t they?

Our friends, especially if we hang out with people like ourselves, are ignorant too.  And we pick up their positions and beliefs.  This is how the human mind works.  

Recall our earlier conversations.  The brain is your hardware.  It floats around in the darkness, waiting for input.  The inputs, or software, come mostly from our cameras (eyes) and microphones (ears).  The brain doesn’t care what comes in.  It will process the conditioning of a low performing person or a high performing person with no preference.  The information coming in becomes accepted and it cements into beliefs and expectations of how the world is based on repetition, and experiences real or imagined.  Once a belief is set, the brain looks for validation in the world that it is right – and it always finds them because the ego does not want to be wrong.

The news is a place for validation and fear (their agenda, attempting to control us), which makes our positions even more rigid.  This is how it works.  This is how YOU work.

But if we are to progress and get smarter, we must stop seeking validation for positions our ignorant self established based on input from many others who are ignorant (ignorant means we don’t know something or don’t know much about it), and start looking for what works.

You can look for right or wrong based on your definition. But it’s far better to look for what works, and what doesn’t work.

So what does this have to do with the title of this post?  More tomorrow…