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 13th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Man, I have to admit that any such poll will be forthcoming in the near-to-distant future as I’ve got my appraisal/interview coming up soon and it’s only in the past 48 hours that I have realised how much preparation is really needed!
Yes, procrastination is something I’ve lovingly nurtured something of a talent for (My true motivations for starting this thread come out at last). But even I can’t ignore a - well, let’s be frank - job interview next week.
So will throw it open to anyone else who may feel up to the task of creating such a poll…
Alternatively I’ll come back to it when my current life stress blows over.
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February 13th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
41 comments, wow, I think I will need to spend a Sunday afternoon reading this LOL But I only merely skimmed through some of the early posts and having just responded to the “open-mindedness thread” I can already see opinions shooting from various point-of-views by each person
Heated or not, TCKs just can’t choose sides! LOL
But anyways politics eh? I hate talking about this and I think the main reason is due to the fact that I don’t have a “side” although personally I am more “liberal” because I believe everyone should have a chance for whatever lifestyle, morals, ethics etc etc even if they are wrong. That just makes the world more colorful don’t it?
Seriously, if I say that in the States I will get a lot of shocking looks and be shunned forever! But people really need to be more “open-minded” and not have to judge things because of what they already think is wrong - human beings have reasons to do everything. If you confine a human being you will get negative results and we already see that happening.
So anyways back to politics, I tend to stay away from this because honestly politics in general is basically one man’s perception and many advocates of that perception. It really has no base for anything except experience, experience, history and experience. That’s my 2 RMB pennies
(doubt I made any sense though…)
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February 13th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
That’s true in Indonesia too… Most people figure that real change in Indonesia won’t happen until the all the people in power now die out.
One thing that generally needs clarifying is that we should mean “Liberal” in the academic sense, rather than the current American sense. Americans at the moment take “Liberal” to mean “Left”, though that’s not the original meaning of it at all.
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February 13th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
That’s true, but I’m inclined to think that TCKs who tend to lean more to the right have a sense of loyalty to a particular nationstate.
Non-TCKs generally come with this, ahem, pre-packaged.
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February 13th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Actually, there is a poll option!
Here’s an example of a poll that Cynthia made
http://www.tckid.com/group/how-did-you-find-out-youre-a-tck/
Just list your questions and we’ll put it up!
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February 13th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Again, “liberalism” is not synonymous with “open-mindedness”. There are many conservatives who are much more open minded and cater their political actions much more based on the well being of people in general than liberals. Maybe it’s just a trend I see around me but there is too often the use of “liberal” and “open minded” and “conservative” and “close minded” in every day speech. One of the big differences between the two is not necesssarily who cares more about giving a chance to everyone but the way in which you should give it. Conservatives (and here I am indeed making general statements) tend to view the importance of limited govenrment as a freedom of the people to choose their own way to live and what they want to spend their time and money on more while liberals tend to view the state as a backbone of the people more. (in short, it’s all a matter of what you view security as). But then again, these are based on European/American ideals of what liberalism and conservatism are (and some political philosophy). So that assumption is not only false, it is offensive towards conservatives (or anybody, for that matter, who is not a liberal as there is much more than liberal and conservative).
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February 13th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
As usual “labels” really are things that are vague and yes I admit I did generalize many things from understanding the terms “conservatism” and “liberalism” (hence the quotes).
As someone who only heard of the term “liberal” and “conservative” when being educated in the States, it is not surprising that I may have learned it that way. In the States “liberal” is associated with “open-mindedness” and “conservative” is associated with “close-mindedness” (I have seen this happening on my campus, it’s insane!). How they are defined elsewhere I do not know. In other countries, these will perhaps mean different things. Honestly, up to this day I don’t even know what they mean exactly but know how they are portrayed in the States and from that I have formed my own opinions.
But I will repeat this: politics in general is basically one man’s perception and many advocates of that perception. If it makes sense to someone, it will make sense to a certain number of people. Politics is and will always be a very controversial issue as this digs deep into what a person believes and what the individual thinks is right or wrong. One person may see it this way whereas another will see it a different way but they are both talking about the same thing.
Just as have been commented repeatedly, these terms mean different things in various countries and government systems. But from my point of view I have seen it through the American government system, not the best but that was how I was educated. And again I admit I do not know much about politics but only used those terms to explain what I believe in.
I am usually sitting on the fence (or at least try to avoid anything to do with politics LOL) but after having been in the US and China (hmm I think really more because of that LOL), there have been some things that I’ve seen that I believe can clearly justify what I think politically. There is probably no term to define what I believe in but maybe (just MAYBE) quote-unquote liberal.
And OMG I actually talk politics and I don’t make sense. Ah well…I tried - to be part of the discussion LOL
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February 14th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hey Brice,
Thanks, I can see the poll Cynthia set up & it’s a good question, but can’t figure out how to set one up myself… Perhaps if it were more evident, there would be more polls, hence more of a feel for our community here
I can’t say I have the best questions all thought out, but I do enjoy taking part in surveys & seeing the data 
Some basic stats I do want to see are:
- % of Missionary Kids vs Military Brats vs Corp. Kids, etc, etc on this site…
- age range
- current physical residence
- passports represented
- countries represented
… That’d be a good start
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February 14th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Cynthia, I completely agree “politics in general is basically one man’s perception and many advocates of that perception”
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