雜崩能閱讀報告
JBL Reading Report

As someone who's about to vote in a U.S. presidential election for the first time (became a US citizen less than 4 years ago), I've been doing a lot of thinking about this election. I really appreciate McLaren's writing on the election. I tend to agree with his viewpoints. I think Christians (especially white Christians) in U.S. tend to mistakenly cast votes for officials as if they're voting for church leaders. I still have to do some more thinking on this so I might write more about the election later...

Unfortunately I don't know much about Canadian politics... would like to know more though...

I was reading McLaren' post and I've been nodding my head all the way, agreeing very much with what he said... but towards the end, I suddenly realized he's also employing the us-them language -- the McCain generation and his (postmodern/emergent) generation -- revealing much contempt for the other side, and treating it as if both sides are never reconcilable.

I think this mentality can be best described as "You don't know jack, so get lost, and let us run the show." In my opinion, that's very dangerous too. (I wonder if this mentality applies to the church generations too... something that's worth expanding the discussion into.)

I think the US needs not a democrat or a republican, but a leader who can tell a super-narrative that can address to the needs (and fears) of both sides of the divided country.

super-narrative -> exactly!

I'm looking for the super-narrative behind the Canadian candidates' policies, but I really couldn't find any. There is no super-narrative, hence no vision. I'm still waiting for someone to tell me, what is the Canadian story for the coming 20 or 30 years. We really need a vision, a super-narrative.

Yeah, I echo you. No matter how hard I try to interpret the candidates, I can't find anything of substance that I can put my vote into.

I guess in these situations, when we can't find the best or the most helpful, I guess we can only choose what's least harmful then.

But that's also another challenge for voters to find out...

Checkout this TED.com video on my blog about the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives. It's quite illuminating:

http://www.xanga.com/ansonann/675485404/jonathan-haidt-the-real-difference-between-liberals-and-conservatives.html