When people talk about blindness, it is usually meant with regards to an individual losing one’s own eyesight; however, truthfully, there are other ways that an individual could become blinded. A man or woman could be blinded due to one’s own ego and pride. A man or woman could be blinded by living in denial and being oblivious to it all.  A man or woman could be blinded by a cause or an endeavor. Finally, there are the men and women that become blind due to ideology.

To me, this can be all too dangerous.

I remember when I was a boy living in Italy in the late 1970s, how many people were blinded by the communist ideology in my father’s small town. There were people literally that preached the value of communism and its promise of stuff to the villagers like land, money and food. These people were always preaching against capitalism and against the rights of the individual. One person that I knew was blinded so much, that it was not until 30 years later that he began to see the light and saw that freedom and liberty was the sunshine and that communism was the darkness. He got through with room to spare.

In the United States, I see pretty much the same thing with regards politics and the press. I see journalists like Eleanor Clift of Newsweek become so blinded by her far left views that she can’t see the value of what others have to say. It is similar with journalists like Tom Moran of the Star Ledger, Editor Bill Keller of the New York Times, New York Times’ Columnist Paul Krugman, Columnist Charles Krauthammer, Magazine editor Bill Kristol and some others. In the political world, politicians that are blinded by ideology include people like Barney Frank, Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, Christine Todd Whitman, Olympia Snowe, Al Franken and many others.

I follow the ideology of Libertarianism. It is a belief in individual and economic freedom for all. Despite the fact that I am strong in my ideological belief and believe that my ideology has been proven to work every time it is tried, I do not give my ideology a license to blind me. That is why it is important and beneficial to keep an open mind and an open heart, and not let the darkness take away from the light.