Ideology Bonds in Ways Ethnicity Never Should...

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IDEOLOGY bonds in ways ETHNICITY never should.

Race/ethnicity is an accident of birth. In many ways, it defines us, connecting us to a lineage, other cultures. It IS a part of who we are, BUT it wasn't something earned. Like religion and all too often political affiliation, it's something we are born into.

Ideology CAN BE earned, but only if all the religious, political and cultural tenets we're born into are challenged...and that's a hard thing to do.

Most of us stay with that to which we were born, our religions, our political affiliations, our ethnicities, our beliefs. That can be a comfort in this often turbulent world.

I lost faith in the religion of my birth at around age 11, a few years after realizing my parents were Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc.

Limbo never made sense...even early on. Later, many other things wouldn't either.

My fathers family was Irish, with some Welsh. Came here as the Civil War approached. It was hard to give up the idea that they nobly and selflesdly fought to end slavery, but the truth is, the North DIDN'T fight to end slavery. Lincoln was willing to make any deal regarding slavery and 6 of the Southern States (SC, GA, MI, AL, FL & LA) had too many other economic issues to remain. Other Southern States (VA, TX, AK, NC & TN) joined after Lincoln demanded conscripts from them for the fight.

Turns out, my ancestors fought because they had to...like virtually all soldiers throughout human history. Bankers forge wars and the poor fight them. The bankers get richer and the poor get paid in "glory," such as it is.

Early on, I had an innate sympathy for the Catholics of Northern Ireland and for the injustices heaped on that people from the reign of Cromwell and his Irish slave trade, through the engineered potato famine, through all the IRA (Irish Republican Army) vs UDA (Ulster Defense Association) struggles, but when I heard IRA leaders like Bernadette Devlin, Gerry Adams and others extolling Marxism, I was deeply disappointed.

Ethnicity DOES NOT always translate to a shared ideology.

That's why ideological discussions rarely resolve much of anything. Those wedded to the views they were born into, won't be swayed. People challenge such views on their own...or not at all.

The SAME is pretty much true for those who've come to their current views through much consternation, contemplation and inner struggle. Such views do not change easily, if at all.

In many ways ideologies can be as permanent as ethnicities, but can also be much more unifying, as well as divisive.

Among the various races and ethnicities there are many internal divisions, but a similar ideology (ie. Libertarianism, Marxism, etc.) bond adherents in something even more structural, more connective than mere outward appearance.
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