Can you sustain conflicting positions on issues?

Why is that a conflicting viewpoint?

I hate my government, but I love my country. Does that seem like a contradiction? I assure you that it isn’t.

“The government” is not “my country”.

Johnny Cash could entertain troops in Vietnam because he knew that most of them never chose to be there.

Yes, I agree that Cash was not holding conflicting viewpoints. Protesting the war was protesting the government’s policies in Vietnam not protesting the involvement of the individual soldiers who were charged with carrying out that policy, many of whom were either merely answering their country’s call to service and or were drafted and were as much victims of the policy as anyone. If the NPR reporter couldn’t see this, then maybe he or she is in the wrong profession. And sometimes what appears to people who can only see things in black and white as holding opposing views actually someone with an understanding of how complex complex problems and situations can be.

In the case of Johnny Cash….he recognized that the war was not right, but he also knew that these young men had been drafted and many had no choice but to be there. So, he played for them.

In the case of the Iraq and Afghan wars….I was opposed. But now, I see that if we pull out of Afghanistan (for example) the young girls who are receiving an education and/or the women who have fled their abusive spouses will continue to suffer. This bothers me very much. I don’t have answer…I want these women to be free…but I oppose the occupation of their country. The idea that they are not allowed an education…and that the occupation has given them a chance…..<sigh> See?

I doubt that one of the prerequisites of serving in the USO was that the entertainers supported the Govt. policies or they couldn’t go to a country where they may end up in harm’s way.

It is a necessary component to becoming a lawyer!

Of course! That’s one of the things humans do best… live with contradictions! : )

I thought it was interesting, too, that the narrator saw it as the same thing. And perhaps I should have worded the question differently, but I struggled. Support the troops is not the same thing as support the government. But for a lot of people, it is the same thing.

@BarnacleBill I happen to have this crazy notion that one of the most important and best ways to “support our troops” is to not send them off to die in unnecessary, reckless, ill-advised and/or poorly planned and poorly thought out wars in the first place and that sometimes absolutely requires opposing our government’s policies.

@lillycoyote

Make a deal with you… if you will support deep cuts in spending, I will support never using American troops first against anyone. : )

I am a Christian with Wiccan friends. I am pro-choice, but my personal choice has been no. I am against the war in Iraq, but I am not pro-Iraq.
I am severly conflicted, yet constantly checking my balance.

@CaptainHarley I didn’t say anything about not using “American troops first against anyone.” I said that I try not to send “them off to die in unnecessary, reckless, ill-advised and/or poorly planned and poorly thought out wars in the first place.” And I don’t make blanket deals and I don’t trade “spending cuts” for human lives.

To make the example more apt one could say that Johnny Cash protested the war but then entertained the higher government including it’s high ranking military personel. Placing myself in this position I believe that though I would be unfond of the idea I could indeed perform for the aforementioned government officials but would likely find a means with which to justify it to myself, in this case it would be that everyone is entitled to witness art.
I feel that many humans would be analogous in so much as they would either outright refuse or do so but with a (perhaps poor) rationale.

I see nothing contradictory in opposing a war but wanting the best for the soldiers who are ordered to fight it. Johnny Cash was a class act. He was an absolutely superb singer and a great human being as well.

Now, to your original question, “Can you sustain conflicting positions on issues?” Of course I cant. Except when I do. Which never happens. And I do that often.

@lilycoyote

Kinda touchy, ain’t ya.

@CaptainHarley Generally no, I’m not touchy, but sometimes, on occasion, I can be and apparently this time I came across that way. Didn’t mean to. It’s a subject of some importance to me and maybe sometimes I shoot first and ask questions later. Sorry.

NP, nice lady. Takes a true Lady ( or Gentleman ) to say they’re sorry, especially on here! : )

@CaptainHarley I assume you are speaking to me… anyway, I’m most certainly a person with numerous flaws but, at least I like to think, one of my strengths is my willingness and ability to acknowledge my weaknesses under most, but not all circumstances. I can be stubborn sometimes, no doubt about that.

@lillycoyote

I think most people can identify with that! : ))

I am a narcissist with low self-esteem.

That’s messed up, dude! Heh!