In a May 2007 speech at USC, Charlie Munger said the following about ideology:
“Another
thing I think should be avoided is extremely intense ideology because
it cabbages up one’s mind; you’ve seen that, and you see it a lot with
T.V. preachers, for instance – they’ve all got different ideas about
theology and a lot of them have minds that are made of cabbage. But that
can also happen with political ideology, and when you’re young it’s
easy to drift into loyalties and when you announce that you’re a loyal
member and you start shouting the orthodox ideology out, what you’re
doing is pounding it in, pounding it in, and you’re gradually ruining
your mind. So you want to be very, very careful of this ideology. It’s a
big danger… I have what I call an iron prescription that helps me keep
sane when I naturally drift toward preferring one ideology over another
and that is: I’m not entitled to have an opinion on this subject unless I
can state the arguments against my position better than the people who
support it. I think only when I’ve reached that state I am qualified to
speak. This business of not drifting into extreme ideology is a very,
very important thing in life.”
[And since I follow everything Munger says, I am forced to agree..]
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