I was talking to a friend's mother a few months ago and she was talking about the concept of old and new souls. She believes people are reincarnated and those that have lived many lives are old souls and those that have lived only one or just a few are new souls. Old souls are more experienced and therefore have a better feeling for what is ultimately important in life. They tend to be less self-absorbed, more altruistic, compassionate towards others and philanthropic. New souls, she explained, were in a way like children: they go through life fighting for their toys often at the expense of others around them and breaking things without regard or responsibility.

Anyway, I was thinking about this idea and I started to make the connection between old souls/ new souls and democrats/ republicans. There might be something to it: that democrats may be old souls and republicans tend to be new souls. It seems democrats (not all, but the majority) are more concerned with fairness to all races, creeds, sexes; they’re frantic about protecting the environment; they are more community focused as far as caring for elders, children, education, etc. It seems some Republicans tend to have more of a me-first attitude. Let me do my thing, run my business, feed my own family, and leave me out of the rest of it without a lot of regard of the consequences.

Of course there are new and old on both sides of the line but I think the new tend towards one party and the old tend towards another.



[edit on 20-10-2004 by jupiter869]

I'm very familiar with the old soul, new soul philosophy. I never thought of the possible Republican/Democrat link. It makes sense though. The average republican does tend to be ignorant, or let themselves be ignorant - close minded. While the average democrat tends to be very open-minded and constantly strives to glean new information and ideas.

There is a definite baby mentality going on with a lot of republicans. I'm not saying all are like that, but quite a few. And of course not all democrats are like what I mentioned above.

This concept is interesting nevertheless.

Excellent post Jupiter.

what a load of absolute, biased crap. tell me embryonic, just how the hell do you justify generalizing an entire political party like that? this could have been a fine side thread if it hadn't been for you both trying to so obviously assert democrats are more compassionate, therefore kinder, then republicans. what about abortion? if you believe abortion kills a person and their soul, then how can you say democrats are more compassionate when more then not republicans are the ones that are anti-abortion.
jupiter, you see the basic republican philosophy as a "me-first" attitude. well others see it as an independent way of life. such as "let me fend for myself, don't carry me along in life". concerning this fairness thing, do you believe republicans don't care for all people? could you substantiate your opinion on demorats caring more for everyone? republicans are traditional, can you blame them for wanting to adhere to the same morals and values that our countries founders believed in? Embryonic, to say republicans are ignorant and close-minded is tripe, not to mention such a general belief goes against what a democrat supposedly stands for. most self-confessed democrats i know aren't open-minded, they just "don't care" and think "hey yeah, let people do whatever they damn well please." both of you need to get off your high horse and see past party lines.

Hate to break it to you but the democrats once stood on the same platform the libertarian's now stand on...

As the years go on and they get more comfy in the political arena, they find it suits them best to just start speaking out of both sides of their mouth.
How do you think their ideas got so polarized it's easy to tell people what they want and play the straw man then it is to have your convictions and stand firm on them...

ps: Republican's used to stand on the same platform the dems did too both of them seem to be polarizing at quite a fast pace....


pss: this old and new soul thing is a an intriguing thought... I can see what you mean about old sould being that way and new souls being like children.

That makes sense. I can see her point...

If I had to pick between old and new soul, I'd be an old soul for sure.

Astroblade, obviously you didn't read the last line. Its far from a generalization.

There is a definite baby mentality going on with a lot of republicans. I'm not saying all are like that, but quite a few. And of course not all democrats are like what I mentioned above.

I'm not pro democrat, nor am I pro republican. I find the parties are a load of BS to begin with. I'm not generalizing, open your eyes. Seeing all of these crazy democratic/republican followers is nuts. People holding signs that say, "Vote for this president, or suffer." And I'm not referring to the extreme ones. It seems that bored people tend to follow the flock; they all start acting the same way. Whatever happened to voting for the best person to do the job?

Anyhow, where the hell did I talk about abortion? And there is an ignorance the permeates through so-called "republicans." I'm sure you're offended because you are a die-hard republican. Well hey, if you're not an ignorant republican, than you're not an ignorant republican. No need to get defensive for the republican "cause." The same goes for democrats.

I was just posting my thoughts, you didn't have to try and ream me with rhetorical BS. And if you notice, I wasn't referring to actual politicians. I was referring to a group of peoples who tend to act and think a certain way.

[edit on 10-20-2004 by EmbryonicEssence]

others see it as an independent way of life. such as "let me fend for myself, don't carry me along in life".

That's exactly the point, astroblade. A sort of let me do my thing and to hell with the rest of you. A "young soul" mentality. I couldn't have made my point better.

what an interseting idea. i think you are on to something. the new and old sole idea rings true.

Just because someone is willing to throw money at underprivledged doesn't make them compassionate.

Likewise, those who are true to their professed faith, far from being ignorant, ARE often compassionate and decent people.

Politics and Money muddy peoples' motives - so it may not be generalizing, but it is certainly based on assumptions.

Also, the whole Old Soul/ New Soul theory is just that - a theory.

It makes as much sense to me to think that Old Souls would be stubborn, set in their ways, and afraid of change, while New Souls would be compromising, energetic, and accepting of new thoughts and ideas.

To assume that the Souls are actually learning, progressing, and becoming better Souls may be true, but it is just as likely wishful thinking.

Hmm, most young souls I know tend to do things like paint with a broad brush, accept assumptions as facts and mislead themselves with generalizations in an attempt to reduce the world to simple terms.

You know, like suggesting that a person's political affilition will necessarily correlate to a notion of spiritual maturity.

Meanwhile, most old souls tend to recognize that such errors are the kinds of things new souls tend to do.

As for the idea that "New Souls would be compromising, energetic, and accepting of new thoughts and ideas", well I guess that's a matter of opinion. These are not traits I generally associate with the young, although I do know some exceptions to that, of course.

For my part, I am no longer young enough to know everything. But I used to be.

Guess that makes me an old soul.

But seriously folks, if I'm right, all souls have existed since the last Creation, and most have existed in previous Cycles of Creation.

Under that model, your "spiritual age" is more meaningfully detrmined by how many Cycles of Creation you have been through.

But heck, who really knows?

I'd also think that new souls would be more fear based than old souls.

They attack what they fear and they fear what they do not understand.

As an outsider to American politics, it comes as a huge irony to me, that a country founded by freemasons with the desire to leave the religous intolerance of the holy roman empire behind, should have a political system based on the Roman model of Republican versus Democrat.

As for old souls/young souls, Republicans and Democrats have been at odds in one forum or another for over two thousand years and nothing seems to change. The Democrats have all the good ideas but the Republicans win all the votes by going to war.

Originally posted by astroblade
what a load of absolute, biased crap. tell me embryonic, just how the hell do you justify generalizing an entire political party like that? this could have been a fine side thread if it hadn't been for you both trying to so obviously assert democrats are more compassionate, therefore kinder, then republicans. what about abortion? if you believe abortion kills a person and their soul, then how can you say democrats are more compassionate when more then not republicans are the ones that are anti-abortion.
jupiter, you see the basic republican philosophy as a "me-first" attitude. well others see it as an independent way of life. such as "let me fend for myself, don't carry me along in life". concerning this fairness thing, do you believe republicans don't care for all people? could you substantiate your opinion on demorats caring more for everyone? republicans are traditional, can you blame them for wanting to adhere to the same morals and values that our countries founders believed in? Embryonic, to say republicans are ignorant and close-minded is tripe, not to mention such a general belief goes against what a democrat supposedly stands for. most self-confessed democrats i know aren't open-minded, they just "don't care" and think "hey yeah, let people do whatever they damn well please." both of you need to get off your high horse and see past party lines.

astro clearly u are republican so we can expect no less then an angry reply, and every party has their faults but its no mystery that republicans are more for a dictatorship system that involves a higher respect for money and keeping the rich wealthy and after all of their goals are met focus on the needs of the low end middle income and low income families, it doesnt mean they dont care but its not nearly as high of a priority, i am neither republican or democrat and i have little faith in either party but i have noticed that most people i know that are republican are money oriented and very materialistic and i have NEVER met a low income family that was republican but that just my personal experience

Originally posted by Flange Gasket
As an outsider to American politics, it comes as a huge irony to me, that a country founded by freemasons with the desire to leave the religous intolerance of the holy roman empire behind, should have a political system based on the Roman model of Republican versus Democrat.

As for old souls/young souls, Republicans and Democrats have been at odds in one forum or another for over two thousand years and nothing seems to change. The Democrats have all the good ideas but the Republicans win all the votes by going to war.

i would agree but what can we do? this reminds me of a movie called moon over parador, its got alot of big stars but it basicly presents a third world country voting with only one oponent but to make the people feel like they have a choice they label it as the red dictator or the blue dictator just for an illusion of choice when they are picking the same person just a different colored banner, i feel like whoever we pick the biggest decisions are going to be the same no matter who we choose because there will always be people in power we cant elect or remove

Originally posted by Flange Gasket
The Democrats have all the good ideas but the Republicans win all the votes by going to war.

This confirms your status as an outsider to American politics, or at least unfamiliar with American history.

To see what I mean, check out U.S. history during the 20th century. Should you do so, you will find that every major war the U.S. was involved in, except for the Gulf War -- in other words WWI, WWII, the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam -- began under Democratic administrations.

That is not to say that those wars were necessarily unjustified, just that your statement has no basis in fact.