Over the years, I’ve determined that ‘right’ is usually ‘right to me, right now’. May not be right to me in a few years, nor is it necessarily right to other people, nor is it really the important thing, a lot of times.
To follow on with the examples about voting, back in the Year of the Dimpled and Hanging Chads, I was amazed that there could be any significant confusion over voting - it seems like the simplest thing. I watched the recordings of people at the entrance and exit. So many people standing in line waiting to vote, who said they didn’t know who was running, they’d just vote for whoever their friend voted for, or whoever an ad told them to vote for or whatever. People coming out of the polls saying they had no idea who they’d just voted for. People citing comedians or comic strips or political ad sound bites as their reasons for voting.
Seemed pretty obviously ‘right’ to me at the time that people should be required to take a basic IQ and literacy test and know who the candidates were in order to vote. After all, if they can’t follow the basic voting instructions and have no idea what they’re voting for, they’re not really qualified to make those decisions, right? Obviously.
Of course, IQ tests (and tests in general) are quite problematic, illiterate or blind people, people whose native language is different, or who might be discriminated against by a test are still members of society who deserve a say in the things that affect their lives. Disenfranchising people on the basis of a test now seems every bit as wrong to me as it seemed right back then. But back then, I was in school, and basic competency tests as a prerequisite seemed natural and right. Even on the job, no one was allowed to operate dangerous equipment unless they could pass the safety test, never mind designating other people who they knew nothing about to operate the dangerous equipment for them.
So, almost a lifetime later, while I realize that the solution I believed right at the time was in fact wrong, I still think there was a grain of truth in there regarding problems with our system. Nowadays I feel the more important things are in getting at those bits of truth, and why/how the obviously right things aren’t necessarily right, than the right or wrong. It’s a more interesting world, but also a messier one, and sometimes a bit bleak, compared to simply and clearly being ‘right’.