My Own "Minority Report"

This past weekend made me think of this Tom Cruise film (loosely based on the Philip Dick short story), in which the omission of a dissenting opinion causes tragic consequences.

Do you ever find yourself in the minority and wonder how the hell that happened? There you are with friends, spouses or co-workers who you think are pretty much like you only to realize they have VERY different ideas from yours? Well, that happened to me this past weekend, and while I survived it made me quite uncomfortable. I began to question why I was so far outside the group. Am I naive? Stupid? Insane?

Here's how it went down. As soon as my partner and I arrived at my friend's house for the long weekend, everyone was talking about the Olympics. There were 5 of us total. As you know, I'm boycotting the Olympics coverage as well as sponsors. They were all talking about watching the opening ceremonies, which I usually love to see. But we had dinner plans, so I was hoping we might be out so late, we'd miss the coverage.

Turns out, we did miss most of it, but as soon as we returned home, the TV was turned on to NBC. Sure, I thought about mentioning my objections. I thought about feigning a headache and going to bed early. But I did neither. I decided to stay up with them--and yes, my silence felt like tacit approval of the Olympics. Guess I didn't feel like fighting that battle right then.

Then on Sunday, we all got into a friendly political discussion. I knew 4 of us were Democrats and the other was a Republican, seemingly in name only. We discussed Obama and McCain, and I suddenly realized that no one liked Obama--except me. Even my partner expressed some reservations (although he didn't say he'd vote for McCain). I found myself defending Obama, defending his wife Michelle, and explaining all sorts of reasons why I was voting for him.

Their objections? Money, first and foremost. They were worried about Obama reinstating the capital gains tax or raising taxes to pay for national health care. I countered with all the usual arguments, but it was clear these friends of mine had a very tight grip on their money. One of them also couldn't get past Obama's past affiliation with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In her mind, Obama was a black liberationist and would turn our country into some kind of new Marxist nation. She suspected his loyalties to lie everywhere else but with good ol' American mom and apple pie.

All in all, it was a good discussion, proof that you can discuss politics without fist fights. But I left feeling like I had been in actual fist fight. It caused me to question everything I feel about Obama and about the Beijing Olympics. I like these people and we have fun together. Should we all feel the same? I suppose that's unrealistic, but it isn't so comforting when you discover yourself in the minority.