Contrarians

I love contrarians. Contrarians are people who ask: “What if…?”, and “Why?”, and “Why not…?” Contrarians swim upstream. The last thing a contrarian desires is to be like everyone else. (Although, most contrarians do wish everyone else was more like them.) Contrarians know that when they agree with the majority, they need to rethink an idea.

Contrary to popular belief, contrarians don’t tear things down; contrarians actually hold things together. Contrarians are the tendons that stretch and allow the muscles to do their work while providing resistance to prevent the muscle from going too far and becoming destructive.

Spokespeople for minority organizations are not contrarians. They may lead a minority organization, but they are still expressing the majority view within their organization. The true contrarian expresses views that are different from the majority view within the organization they are a member.

Organizations without contrarians become radical organizations. The National Organization for Women, Focus on the Family, and the NAACP, among others, have wandered from their original purposes into radicalism because they lack the tendons to pull back the muscles.

My hope is that the Republican and Democrat parties both embrace good people and good ideas in the coming decades. However, I fear that they are both flexing their muscle and loosing their tendons.