What's Wrong with Being Naive?

I had another interesting week spent in church work and teaching my course at the community college. Fun. The last couple of days were spent in the company of some beautiful young women. I am really big with the toddler set (and the over 60 set as well). I must admit that I am looking forward to some normalcy. Hopefully this will come this week since our preschool is beginning again on Tuesday and I will have steady childcare from now on. What a stressful couple of weeks. Today we took the girls over to Fort Walton Beach to a Greek Festival. We used to do this every September in Dallas. I always enjoyed it because I have had this love affair in my mind with the Greek (or Russian) Orthodox Church for over a decade now. I went and visited an Orthodox priest several years ago and I thought he was about the holiest person I had ever met. Well, this festival was in a convention center and not at a church, so it lacked some of the je ne sais quo of the one in Dallas, but it was air conditioned and I liked that a lot. We had some Greek food and pastries and looked around and left. The girls did not care for the food, but I really went for myself. I did not buy any icons or books on Orthodoxy this time. I have plenty. But it was fun to do this and remember fun times with friends back in the days before children.

I was watching Bill Maher again last night and he is always interesting (read: thought provoking, or just provoking). They were talking about why it was that Democratic candidates seem to be thinkers and Republicans seem to use more scare tactics in their platforms and that most of middle America wants to believe the Republicans and not think about much of anything. One of his panelists, John Mellencamp, asked Bill what was wrong with being naive or wanting to believe what politicians or leaders tell them. Of course, for Bill Maher, this is an unforgivable sin--to be naive or to just believe something is so because the President or whoever told us so. I have often talked about how I wish for a time when I did believe for the sake of believing. I have become disillusioned enough with our political climate that I am ready for change no matter how that comes. I must admit that though I am not a Bushite any more, I do feel bad for him since he has had to deal with the loss of so many of his closest advisers in the last few weeks. It seems like everyday there is another press conference announcing somebody else is leaving. I guess I wonder if they got to a point where they realized that nobody was listening to their advice. And I feel bad for someone who cannot compromise on anything. I am an idealist in many ways, but I have learned that sometimes the greater good is served by being flexible. This is a hard one for me, but I am learning it. I guess I wish the President could.

But what is wrong with being naive? I would like to live in a world where we can believe our leaders will tell us the truth. I think this was what the political climate was like before Nixon, though I am too young to remember it personally. I remember a quote from Oliver Stone's JFK in which he was talking about conspiracy theories leading back to Johnson and members of the CIA to kill Kennedy. It was something like: "You are talking about the President of the United States. We are supposed to believe what he says. I mean who are we supposed to believe? How do we know who our daddy is except that our mama told us?" I am not a conspiracy theorist and living 12 years in Dallas could make you one, but I do wish I could go back to this type of thought. Blissfully oblivious.

So, what is wrong with being naive? Is it okay to let people go along believing things are fine in America or in the church and not tell them the truth? Or is it better to allow people to continue on blissfully oblivious as long as they feel good about where they are, let alone the possibility of where they are going?