If I needed reminding about the power of ideas, I got it yesterday.

I have long been irked by the lack of civil discourse between political parties on opposing sides of the policy and values fence in my current place of residence.

Unnecessarily hot – often hateful – and somewhat reminiscent of fights among teenagers in a school yard. Equally impotent except that views held by adults have more currency and shape political systems.

Yesterday I was discussing the relative merits of the Canadian and US health care systems. I was born in Canada. My values were shaped there. I benefitted my whole life from free health care when and as I needed it.

I explained my view is that we encourage social stability and suppress violence by providing for the least among us in society. Sure there will be abuses of the system.

But in a country like Canada, I believe we collectively accept it is a necessary cost. (I won’t argue the current state of health care in Canada. Or lack thereof. That is a whole other blog post.)

I decried the story I once read of a young man in his twenties who died after falling into a diabetic coma because he was parsing his insulin use due to the cost. I was appalled that anyone should lose their life for lack of health care.

My American friend has an opposite view. “People should die,” he asserted, “if they can’t afford health care. It is a business not a right.” It would be more than fair to say our views diverge sharply in this regard.

This is someone who does not appear to have had any significant financial or other upheaval from life setbacks that may have altered his point of view.

That said, I appreciated his candor. Even though the attitude astonished me. There was a lot of ensuing discussion about personal responsibility with which I agree. But I know the trap of addiction and am lucky enough to have overcome it.

Otherwise I may well have been one of those who succumbed to the vagaries of my disease due to an addiction I could not overcome.

That conversation cemented my view that capitalism is the key driver of values for many Americans. Sadly, however, there seems to be a paucity of awareness of just plain wrong-headedness about what the term “socialist” means. Which is what a lot of Americans think Canada is.

I was reminded of the term “confirmation bias” whereby people seek out and accept only those views and people who are aligned with what they already believe. I am pretty sure I do the same.

But I find value in trying to get my head around what shapes and drives alternate opinions. What is cooperation and growth but compromise based on mutual respect for each other’s opinions, even if we don’t share them ourselves.

I am unlikely to be swayed by someone arguing the merits of living off roadkill or bush meat, for example, but I get that some people in other cultures do.

I am not going to try to change anyone’s minds about what they believe. Everyone rationalizes their POV according to their own needs. Missionaries all over the world have tried that tactic for centuries with varying degrees of success and usually at a very high cost to the colonized.

And that said, while I may respect their point of view and entitlement to it, I am unlikely to accept a dinner invitation from the roadkill proponents any time soon. Okay, never.