Bulverism. I had never even heard of the term before I took a look at C.S. Lewis's writing titled "Bulverism". I found this piece of work by Lewis interesting, and, unfortunately, I have also found it aplicable to my life. Lewis defines bulverism as "to assume without discussion that that (someone) is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became to be so silly". This definition makes sense and I think we can all relate to this one way or another, but I also liked the discussion that we had on it in class today because it helped to flush out any confusion that some of us may have been experiencing.
I interpret the definition of bulverism that Lewis gave us as having a bias towards someone before you know what they are even going to talk about, in a sense it can be thought of as prejudging someone. So many of us judge others on appearances or other things before we even get a chance to talk to them or understand where they are coming from. A good example of bulverism can be seen in politics. Many congressmen vote on bills without fully understanding what a certain bill entails, sometimes they just vote with their parties and do what the majority of their party is doing. Someone in class used the example of not only politicians, but voters as well. Many voters go to the polls just assuming that they are going to vote for their own parties that they belong to, they may not even know some of their candidate's views or stances on certain issues, but they don't care because they just want to see their party have the power. I think this type of voting is wrong and it hurts our political system when many people vote this way because it shows that they don't care about any issues at the time, these people just want to be in control. Because I think this bulveristic type of voting is wrong, I also think that bulverism is wrong, and Lewis would agree with me here since his whole essay was dedicated to making people aware of bulverism and showing that it is erroneos.
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Great post! I liked how you tied bulverism with politics, and you made some very good points. We should listen to what the candidates have to say and vote for them because of that, not because of what political party they are from. I agree with you in that voting only based on political party hurts our political system. Instead of agreeing or disagreeing with people just because of who they are, we should listen to what they have to say and make our judgements after that.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of bulverism either until I read Lewis, but it is certainly useful.
ReplyDeleteAlso I like how you used politics to express your perspective on bulverism.
It's definitely sad, and almost scary how deeply Bulverism grabs hold of our lives. I agree that politics is a particularly apparent example of its use. Unfortunately, I see very little positive shift away from Bulverism. Maybe I am a cynic, but I think we are only scratching the surface of this issue. Courtney said it correctly, our duty now as Christians is to "listen to what they have to say and make our judgments after that."
ReplyDeleteI would like to add, although it may be obvious, that if we ask God about how we should vote he will give us an answer!
I had not draw the corollary between Bulverism and prejudice. I like how you connected it for me. Thank you for broadening my perspective.
ReplyDeleteI also find myself convicted in regards to bulverism. I appreciated the political spin, as I myself have fallen to voting my party simply because they were my party without actually looking at what a specific candidate stood for. However, looking at the bigger picture, even if some of us fall for bulverism from time to time, the truth will work itself out, since all other things cannot stand against its light. Grace for those of us bulverists who didn't even realize it.
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up the topic of Bulverism being a type of prejudice. This is true and many people judge a book by its cover and do not truly get to know or understand something. My writing was also on politics and the thought of the leaders of our country not using reason to discern issues but the use of Bulverism is very disconcerting.
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