Political leanings and TCK?
I don’t want to be controversial, but I was wondering if being TCK makes you more likely to lean to the left, politics-wise.
Maybe this has already been researched - I’m probably one of the few on this website who hasn’t read any of the TCK books - but from my own experience of other TCKs, this does seem the case. I mean I know that in every school, be it international or not, you’ll get the full spectrum of political beliefs but by and large, but I haven’t met too many right-thinking TCKs.
Is there something about living different cultures, being the ‘outsider’ (at least for some of the time for most of us), having to adapt that makes you more likely to sit towards the tree-hugging liberal end, and less likely to sympathise with conservative right-wing end? I don’t know! I’m sure many other things shape ones views to politics, but TCK-ing has got to play a pretty big role, I’d imagine.
February 12th, 2008 at 5:42 am
I’m not getting heated up, I just think that some of the statements were a little too “sweeping” on the side of denigrating a certain opinion which was not defended. Hence I spoke
Ayako, There’s something you bring up in your post under the surface which is the culture of argumentation. I find that in the US people get offended during arguments much more than in some other cultures (and in my case France), when I started at a stateside university, I remember one day feeling horrible because someone I was having a, in my opinion, fun argument with got strongly put off and to the limit of offended because I was arguing with her politics…just a thought.
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February 12th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Hey sorry if it came across as me accusing you of getting heated up! To the contrary I only felt it might possibly get ‘heated-up’ soon precisely because of the point you have brought up, i.e. the culture of argumentation.
We are all TCKs here mostly but a mix of different cultural backgrounds and there’s also individual personality added to that equation too.
So like any mixed cultural group (and boy are we mixed and mixed in complicated ways!) we do have to take into consideration that aspect of culture. So, thanks for pointing it out!
You see - now that you’ve brought that out into the open it feels much better already.
Anyway my apologies for interrupting the conversation - please pick-up where you left off…I thought about deleting my previous post immediately after posting it but there is no ‘delete’ function.
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February 12th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Ayako,
So glad there IS no delete function because I think you brought up great points. Communication is always imperfect at best, but we can’t communicate at all if we don’t feel open about sharing our thoughts.
Mariedl brought up a great point about argumentation in general. I grew up in a family which loved discussing the issues of the day in detail - my parents were polar opposites politically and religiously, and I loved the ongoing debates. But in the US, as mentioned before, it is taboo to discuss these issues in the culture at large, and way too easy to step on someone’s feelings without even realizing you’ve tread on shaky ground.
From experience with the yahoo group I mentioned, I know these topics have the potential to cause a lot of hard feelings because they touch on some of our most dearly held ideals. In that group, we’ve had flare-ups, but our friendships have withstood the heat over time - a lot of us in that group went through war and a couple of coups together - it takes more than a little difference of political opinion to tear us apart.
But this forum is obviously different - we share the TCK bond, but most of us don’t know each other personally. That leaves a lot more room for miscommunication, misunderstanding and hard feelings.
Although the discussion here has been very civil to this point, it might help to have some ground-rules when topics like religion and politics come up - i.e., no personal attacks, treat each other with mutual respect, recognize that we encompass many views - something like that.
I understand and agree with the concerns and would not want to see the discussion blow out of proportion. That said, I think it’s a very interesting topic and I’m enjoying all the comments made.
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February 12th, 2008 at 10:21 am
It’s difficult to discuss this without getting embroiled in rhetoric, isn’t it?
‘Left’ and ‘right’ are absolutely resolutely NOT the be-all and end-all of politics. There’s a great deal more chaos to it than that, and I think all who’ve been looking at this thread have agreed. Those labels are a gross and maybe appalling oversimplification. You are evidently a purist and for that I salute you.
I’ve already said that I realise a PERSON can’t be described as such in good conscience (see earlier post) because people are complicated.
To be honest I don’t think the terms ‘left’ or ‘right’ really make much of a difference to my question, which was in essence do TCKs share a similar way of relating to people and larger issues and if so does this come across in their preferences for social policy. Hence, for all our sake, I will happily drop them in favour of any other terms which are less baggage-laden. Again, context is key. I have a feeling whatever kind of ’study’ we construct must be local-centric.
Any suggestions? I mean, I kinda get the impression you don’t think this is a question worth pursuing - which is fair enough really as I sometimes do embark on wildgoosechasesque questioning sprees (esp when I am procrastinating). Would be good to know your thoughts.
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February 12th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Ayako - you can see right through me. Thanks for stepping in and sorry you won’t join in the convo.
I think so far we’ve been respectful and civil.
It would be boring if we all held the same view. As boring as if the world was the all the same!
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February 12th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Very interesting thread.
It’s refreshing to see how civil and respectful everyone has been.
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February 13th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Good stuff, indeed! I share Starburst’s curiosity in seeing what TCKs TEND to do/say/believe!!… There are certainly some tendencies amongst us & I would love to see polls take place on this website so we could see where we sit on any number of issues! Is there such a function on this site? The forum on my website is dead BUT it’s got a great poll function which anyone can use to get the “feel” for the group.
I suspect that the type of TCK one is would have a great impact on one’s outlook as their lifestyles in the country TEND to be quite different.
- Missionary Kids TEND to live the closest to the local people whereas Military Brats TEND to live on bases very removed from local culture.
- Missionary kids often go to school with the locals whereas Diplomat Kids & Corporate Kids usually go to the pricey International Schools.
- Diplomat Kids & Military Brats are serving their governments so return to their home country often & (I’m going out on a limb here & making an assumption!) have more nationalist influence.
- Missionary Kids have the influence of their religion.
- Diplomat Kids & Corporate Kids TEND to have the influence of affluence.
I think these tendencies would have a very different effect on us.
So, Starburst you make the questions & we’ll take the poll to see if we do tend to lean towards similar views. (Preferably you can set it up so we can see the trend amongst the different types of TCKs too!) I look forward to taking it!
PS In case there’s no way to put a poll here, perhaps we can move this to my dead forum?… Unfortunately it would require registering there too
http://www.globalnomaddirectory.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
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February 13th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Great idea Stef - I’m game to join in, and in the meantime, people might want to try out this political compass test and see where they end up on the grid: http://www.politicalcompass.org/
I ended up way left of Gandhi in the same quadrant. Again - the outcome of this test may have more to do with the questions asked than any other factor, but it’s interesting in any case.
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’m enjoying reading this thread!
I think a poll would be interesting.
Jen, I tried out that political compass you mention, and I was surprised to find that I am also in that same quadrant, although closer to the center. It surprised me because in many ways I am very conservative, although I did know that there were things in which I disagreed strongly with other conservatives. It’s just that — as many people on this thread have already said — when you’ve grown up in other countries where the same rules simply don’t apply, you can’t just adhere to a party line.
I wonder if I’d be farther from the center if it weren’t for my moral/religious beliefs.
Anyway, this is an interesting thread.
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February 13th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I ended up in the same quadrant as you two. I was also quite close to the center. That was a REALLY interesting test. Thanks for posting the link.
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