Posted on 12/19/2009 5:48:08 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If You Believe That People Are Basically Good
There was a thread here on FR about this article when it was first published.
In one of the last chapters, I came across a passage in which Palin references the writings of Thomas Sowell.You heard it here first . . .
And I thought of you as soon as I started reading the article. :-)
I would have stopped at "bill." Big government OUT of medicine and other businesses entirely.
Conservatives believe in the "constrained" political vision because we know that human nature is flawed and that there are limitations to what can be done in Washington to "fix" society's problems. Commonsense Conservatives deal with human nature as it is - with its unavoidable weaknesses and its potential for goodness. We see the world as it is - imperfect but filled with beauty.I think Professor Sowell would deny that conservatives (of which he is one) "see the world as it is."The entire point of his discussion of "visions" was that nobody "sees the world as it is" without imposing an imperfect template on it.
Tho he might agree that a conservative politician who must lead must perforce take the bull by the horns and behave as if their vision and reality are largely coterminous.
The most serious danger facing this country is apathy.
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Good point!
I believe you’re correct tho I must admit to looking up coterminous. :)
Go to Detroit!
Personally I see liberals and conservatives as seeing good AND bad in opposite ways.
Liberals think people are all “children” who cannot do anything for themselves, and are otherwise innocent.
Cons think most grown-ups are capable of caring for themselves, but can be childish in the worst way.
I must admit to looking up coterminous. :)
You did? What did it mean? LOL!
It’s a bit more complicated than that. As I read through Liberal Fascism, it’s becoming clear that some people are simply “bored” with life and need to be part of an emotional and religious movement, except that they have replaced God with the State (though plenty of earlier Progressives were theocratic, like Woody Wilson.)
Then there’s the whole desire to dominate and shape the world (and people) around them, which unites both progressive ‘liberal’ and communist. I would actually suggest that progressive libs, fascists and commies don’t really believe that people are ‘good’ but they have an unyielding faith in their ability to MAKE people good. And they only believe in collectivism to accomplish this because otherwise there are those who exist outside the State (or whatever is forcing people to work as an organic political entity with one will) and that undermines their idea of a unanimous society.
People must remember that one of the main goals of Marxist theory in its application was that man would no longer need to worry about working to survive, we would have total control over our environment, nature and that somehow (never makes sense) our wishes would then conform with the overall general interest of our fellows.
The left and some in the right(though very few) have succumbed to the notion that individualism is base or unenlightened and that freedom isn’t you being left alone but you having the “resources” or knowledge to express and live fully (who knows what this actually means, because you never really see it lived out—it’s a religion, again—who can describe Heaven?)
Ask one of them what part of the 10 commandments they hate most?
Better yet, ask them what part of "love your neighbor, as yourself" they hate.
They believe BG can "change" our "sinful" ways.
They are of course wrong.
Outstanding commentary.
My lefty relatives ask me how such a nice person as myself can be a Republican. They’re all poisoned on Kool-Aid. If they read Sowell’s, Sarah’s and your comments, they’d glaze over. They have as much ability to comprehend as Ben Nelson had to do the right thing and Kill the Bill.
Well actually, they think that human beings are malleable. Basically good, but in need of “education.” The same view that forces 9th graders and 12th graders to abide by the same rules, thereby preventing many students from maturing, is applied to a whole society. The Communists turned the state into a huge prison; our liberals would make it a huge school, where we all remain under the thumb of our schoolmasters.
Individualism and limited government gives the freedom for individuals and groups, and, therefore, society, to evolve and progress. Statism and big government takes away that freedom, under the assumption that without elite command and control, by force of arms, men and society will not progress.
I think of "liberals" as the cynics, not conservatives.
I think the Christian precept of original sin also gives conservatives a healthy scepticism of human made laws, unlike "liberals" who seem prone to recognizing no limits on their governmental impositions. See Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, et al.
But never attribute to cunning what you can attribute to stupidity or base greed. The great majority of Dems and even Dem congress-people would never live under the conditions they advocate. They want others to do so...as long as it doesn't threaten their own pampered lifestyles. Which is why the biggest hypocrite of them all, Al Gore, lives on a huge estate and flies on expensive jets. He has no intention of living like the Unabomber. He's just power hungry and deranged.
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