Liberty and Love
No wonder the Left is winning the culture war hands down, because they have so little difficulty in winning the hearts and minds of our children and the underclasses. They are selling social freedom and financial security, at the cost of economic tyranny. The Right is selling economic opportunity, at the cost of financial insecurity and social tyranny. Setting aside any discussion regarding either side’s ability to deliver what they are selling, this is essentially the crux of the L/R debate.
As an entrepreneur, I have often experienced financial insecurity; but I relished the opportunity to ultimately achieve my successes, and just wasn’t cut out to be an employee. Thus, I will always defend capitalism against socialism. Yet, if I thought the above two options were the only ones open to me, I would have to go for the Left’s pitch. You see, Liberty – the freedom to live my life as I choose – is one of my highest ideals, which trumps even opportunity. Fortunately, in my worldview, Liberty encompasses both economic freedom and social freedom.
Why it is so difficult to penetrate the myopia extant on both sides of the L/R divide, with the offer of maximum individual Liberty, consistent with basic law and order, is beyond me. What is it in the nature of man that drives him to wish to force others to conform with his worldview. I suppose I should admit that if there was a button that could cause everyone to accept mine, I would want to push it. However, that is an impossible dream, because Liberty is like love; one cannot have it, without lavishing it on others. â—„Daveâ–º
Simple. Most of the folken are either too lazy to seek information, too ignorant to process it or too confused to understand reality when they do see it.
Troy
Sigh… too true. ◄Dave►
Hi Dave,
Just letting you know, I read your response on Jill from Arizona’s blog and found it to be very thought-provoking, as I did with this entry. I also run the Political Discussion Group on Facebook and would be honored to have you as a member.
One question immediately jumped to mind when I read this entry, and I was wondering what your reaction to this would be: It seems that Democrats, Republicans, candidates with other affiliations, etc., must think that we, the American people, need to have things oversimplified. It’s either economic OR social freedom, but not both. It’s either Obama or Romney, the same to some degree, but different in others. As you say, why not both? I think that it is almost impossible for politicians to fathom any issue that is not black and white, because when you cross into that color of “grey,” then things have to be explained more, instead of if A, then B. They also have to tell what they want done in “soundbites,” which again, I find very humiliating and degrading to my intellectual capabilities. So if they did want both, it would be taken out of context by the media, on both sides! What are your thoughts on this matter?
Thanks for stopping by, Greg. Provoking thought is my prime motive for writing, so you made my day with your kind words. Thanks also for the invitation. Heretofore, I have not played on Facebook. I had to create an account a couple of years ago, in order to read Sarah Palin’s missives when I was smitten; but all the spam and silly games people were playing were tedious, so I quickly gave up visiting my own page. I will try to find your group and ascertain whether I can participate there without having to endure all the other Facebook falderal. I got the impression from all of the refugees from Facebook that have migrated to FreedomTorch, that political discussion was being censored there. Is this untrue?
As for your question, there are several things conspiring to create the conditions you lament. Yes, the politicians think we are dumb, and to an embarrassing extent, a great many American sheeple have been deliberately dumbed down. The preference for sound bites is media driven; but even this is the result of their necessity, to deal with the painfully short attention span of most sheeple. They are less likely to lose viewers during three minutes of 30 sec entertaining commercials, than six minutes of deep political discussion that isn’t a partisan argument.
The ever polarized black/white or A/B dichotomy in our political debate is more insidious, and very deliberate. This is what keeps their Incumbrepublocrat duopoly, laughably referred to as ‘our two-party system,’ working for the oligarchy. As long as they keep us at each other’s throats instead of their own, and voting for incumbents or the rising stars they already control, they are achieving their real goals. You might find my essay, “Incumbrepublocrats,” also thought-provoking.
Please do come back any time you are in need of a mind tease. There is a whole list of them in the right panel under “Essays and Rants.” Thinking outside the box is my specialty. I always enjoy discussing them and especially alternative ideas. Thanks again for your interest, Greg. â—„Daveâ–º
Hey again Dave,
I’m actually going to move the discussion group to my blog. Commenting is perfectly fine as long as those participating are civil, etc. Further, you can post your responses to the class on your blog, this way you get exposure from the people that view mine (not a lot ATM, but this will hopefully change,) and I get exposure from yours. Here’s the link: http://mutanatia.blogspot.com/
Additionally, how do you feel about “prompts,” which are basically a weekly (or in some cases monthly) assignment on a statement, quote, etc. that you would respond to in your blog?
Now, back to your response, you mention a “short attention span.” Do you think that this has been created, in part, due to the media giving you a 30-second sound bite? For instance, I can link you to a bunch of things involving Newt Gingrich, etc. and how they ripped him totally out of context for the most part.
One show that I do like is AC360, because whenever there’s an ad on either side that does the opponent a disservice, they say, “Here’s the quote in its entirety. Does this seem fair to you?” Still, soundbites can be (and often are!) misleading.
A quote that reflects the supposed dumbness of American people was Rumsfeld’s “There are things we know that we know, things we don’t know that we know we don’t know, thinks we know know that we don’t know, and thinks we don’t know that we know” (paraphrased and probably butchered that terribly, but you get the idea). Even BLOGS sometimes do soundbites >.<
So, with all of that in mind, here's a further question: Can anything be done about this? If so, what can be done?
OK, Greg, I’ll play… if you will agree to read two of my old essays and their comment sections, to get a feel for where I am coming from philosophically and politically. First, read “Sovereign Rights“, then tackle “The Political Spectrum.” This will be very helpful to me, so I do not have to repeat in my discussions, what I have already written. I am sure Troy will join us. I have just added your site to my blogroll.
The dumbing down of Americans is very real, very deliberate, and very effective. It now takes 16 years for an American kid to come even close to acquiring the education I got in 12 (I am an autodidact, who has never spent a day in college). They held me back too; but the Progressive education process hadn’t advanced as far back in the ’50s, as it has now. At the time of our Founding, the literacy rate in America was 97%, and formal schooling, such as it was, was completed by puberty. Few had any interest in attending college at that point, but they could and did. Franklin began an apprenticeship for the printer trade at age 12. George Washington was already a colonel in the Army at the age of 16. Jefferson didn’t start school until he was 9 years-old, entered college at 16, and earned his degree in two years. Someday I will point you to an online book that explains all of this, but I probably already have you trying to drink from a fire-hose digesting my own provocative essays. 🙂
The short attention span can be laid almost entirely at the feet of the ubiquitous babble box we call TV, which sucks the mind right out of people. And, it starts very young; Sesame Street is insidious, and one of the very worst things to which one could subject a young developing mind. In our modern frenetically paced culture, children are never given the time and opportunity to concentrate on anything. ADHD was an unknown malady in my youth. It is entirely a product of our modern helter-skelter frenzied lifestyle. I know of what I speak, because I own a Montessori school, which specifically promotes uninterrupted concentration time for our students. Those who enter my school at 2½ or 3 years-old, are reading, writing, and doing 4 figure math by the time they are 5, and would normally be starting Kindergarten.
I rarely turn the TV on, Greg, so I cannot critique AC360. I very much do appreciate any attempt at balanced reporting, which is why I prefer FOX News over the other cable channels. I know they get a bad rap for their conservative opinion shows during prime time, but during the day, their reporting is balanced to a fault. There are many times they have an interesting guest, who’s ideas I would like to hear more of; but they always book a foil, to waste half the segment arguing from the opposite point of view. FOX gets the reputation of being a conservative organ, just because unlike the others, they actually give conservatives half their airtime, which was unheard of a dozen years ago.
I watched Rumsfeld make that statement live in a press conference, understood it in context, and found it rather profound. Go try to find the whole clip or transcript, carefully consider it in context, and see if you disagree.
Can anything be done about it? No, not really. This culture is doomed. Dumbed down sheeple are raising ever more dumbed down kids, who haven’t a clue about our history, and deride the brilliant men who founded this nation as dead white politicians. They have no idea what they have lost and are losing from our heritage. It is as if thousands of years of human experience goes for naught, now that the Progressive wunderkind have arrived on the scene, to tell us old fossils how we should be living our lives. â—„Daveâ–º
I left a huge wall of text on your Sovereign Rights one. 🙂
As to Rumsfeld, perhaps that’s not such a good example. It just struck me as weird that he didn’t enumerate some of those things. But again, I may be a victim of a soundbite! 🙂
If I had one thing that I would evaluate every person in America on, it would be not be on the basis of what do you know (there are 50 states in America), but instead on what have you LEARNED. Do you agree with this statement?
There is one other thing I want to float out there: What do you make of the American media when it hypes up how someone called someone else “unpatriotic?” I think that this is obviously not the case (in 99.99% of the cases… there may be a VERY rare exception here or there), and that it detracts from the issues, which is “if I elect X, I will get Y.” Character attacks are, for the most part, only there in my view to provide smoke and mirrors when there is nothing else to respond with.
Finally, I’d like to thank you for responding to my questions! As you can tell, I am intellectually curious and have a huge appetite for learning more about the world, learning new concepts, and learning more about people. The posts I have read I have either agreed with or disagreed with. But overall, they make me THINK. That is priceless to me, so thank you!
And thanks for the add! 😀 If I knew how to add you, I would as well. New to blogging and all. I would, however, suggest that you link to articles on your blog as much as possible until I figure out the controls. 🙂
Good call. 😉
Not entirely. One knows nothing one has not learned, so I can honestly say that I once learned that America consisted of 48 States. Then I learned that that total had been increased to 49. Finally, I learned that the total is now 50. If I grok what you are getting at, I would suggest a more accurate and revealing inquiry would be, “In what ways have you changed your mind as the result of learning new information, and what do you think you may still need to learn, which could do mayhem to one of your cherished beliefs?”
Dipping back into Rumsfeld’s profundity, what perhaps do we not know that we do not know? I once learned, and knew for an unquestionable certainty, that our system of government was a democracy. Then, only about 20 years ago, I learned that I had been lied to all my life, by authority figures I had every reason to trust; because we are a republic, and there is a profound difference.
Personally, I regard anyone who advocates unconstitutional actions by the Federal government, which trample the individual Liberty of its citizens, as unpatriotic – and I am not afraid to say so. That said, I am continually disgusted with the media focus on personality and process, rather than real issues. It is very discouraging how well distracting negative advertising works, on the mindless sheeple who are encouraged to vote in this country.
Thanks again for the kind words, Greg. I am thoroughly enjoying our discussions. â—„Daveâ–º