Saturday, March 11, 2006

It is the Stupid Ideology

This is cross posted in response to questions concerning the relevance a teacher of the classics can have. His point is that Rich folk get what they want because they are rich and exploit the poor because they poor, and classic socialism is a cure for this.

There are so many ways to respond that I picked two....as follows...

It is not Dead Professors I am concerned about, nor have I forgotten the Classics, but just as Marxists took a skewed logic and made it a (more skewed) ideology, The results of Mr Strauss' teaching is a new ideology, combining Plato and Social Darwinism, that denys even a modicum of Social Responsability, that is at least paid lip service, in other schemes. The only lip service is in deliberate lies to cover true purpose as far beyond Orwell as Orwell is beyond Machievelli.

Leo Strauss and the American Right by Shadia B. Drury is a very detailed disertation on the point and should be required reading for those who would fight the Bushivicks. As it puts a very different perspective from where your comments would indicate.

As for the Socialist model, it is only as good as the ability to hold the leadership accountable, and has the same disadvantage of bigness when it tries to be a Government run Conglomerate.

I would much rather see an actual Free Enterprise Model where there was a strong, but complex Government that could enforce Honor, and make entry into any business as easy as possible, and making sure no "Captains" arose in any industry, maintaining a situation similar to the state that existed when people were able to become PC maunfacturers in their garages in that industry.

As Bigness became a problem taxes based on size could be a very effective weapon to incourage freedom and discourage empire building. Where there is a natural Monopoly, then that is government, and should be held to the same rules, if not actually a ministry of the main government, and that monopoly should be limited to the minimum necessary expanse, and allow competition where someone thinks they can. A good example is maintaining power poles and some power production but allowing anyone to sell to the grid (managed of course, to avoid the California worst case )

Of course as I pointed out, the current government, and the current voting system makes all such discussions academic, untill there is another chance to restore Freedom and democracy. Perhaps even then the gulf between best and possible would still be problematic.


I suppose that as yet most folk have still not figured out that the voting system is toast. They still think that the Republican Corruption Culture, will wash Democrats in like a Tidal Wave. I can only wish it so, but I will be as Flabbergasted as I would be pleased if it is.

Posted by Freedem at 3/11/2006 11:50:00 PM

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Quotables

Intolerance

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."



from an old tale.

The Golden Rule
“That which is hateful to you do not do to another ... the rest (of the Torah) is all commentary, now go study.”

- Rabbi Hillel


Libertarians



1.

The self made man just isn't admitting how or where he came by all those parts

---FreeDem---- Aug 2005


2.

If a man tells you that the Government cannot accomplish anything of value, then voting for him would be like hiring an Amish Auto Mechanic.
If they don't believe in the concept, they are more than likely to do a very poor job of it.


---Bob Danforth Sept. 2009



3.

Republicans never meant to cut government waste, fraud and graft, from the get-go their plan was to organize, monopolize and privatize waste, fraud and graft.



They see the civil service as meddling “middleman,” who interfered with the free flow of cash from taxpayers into corporate coffers. Their intent was to eliminate the “middleman” as an obstruction to corruption.


---Unknown rabblerowser Feb 2007




Patriotism:


No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.

Edward R. Murrow




In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot

Mark Twain





Leadership:





You see, we often get noncreative leaders, people most interested in preserving their own positions. They flock around centers of power. Such centers attract people who can be corrupted. That is a more descriptive observation than to say simply that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.



If you are corruptible and your imagination is confined to worries about loss of power, you exist in a self-destructive system. Eventually, as all life does, you must encounter something you did not anticipate, and if you have not strengthened your creative resources, you will have no new ways for adapting to change. Adapt or die, that's the first rule of survival.



The limited vision of noncreative people is not difficult to understand. Creativity frightens the unimaginative. They don't know what's happening. Things new and unexpected arise from creativity. This threatens "things as they are." And (terrible thought) it undermines illusions of omnipotence.

Frank

Herbert 1984 (the year not the book)





News:




"News is what powerful people want to keep hidden; everything else is just publicity."

....Bill Moyer





Religion:



1.
Just as having only a hammer makes every problem either look like a nail, or as something irrelevant, our very technological skills have had us look there for explanations and ignore reality it cannot deal with. With our powerful hammer, we seek only nails, and dump the rest as dross. Not all questions involve hammers, not all answers are nails.
-- Freedem---Nov., 2006



2.
My issue with Atheists is not that they have no God, there are many religions that have no God, but that they have no religion.
-- Freedem---Nov., 2006



__Note: by this I mean that there are many things religions do besides the discredited "science" and self serving promises (give me your money and God will hold and pay the note), many like charity or fellowship, even social accountability can be very good things not requiring a God.




3.

Many have been very disappointed that their "God-critter" was not to be found as a technology swimming about in the shallower pools of knowledge. So in the obsession basic to our culture, we search ever deeper and more difficult pools, and always the "God-critter" seems to wink at us from the pool just beyond.



In the process we have found technologies beyond the wildest dreams of our most sophisticated ancestors. The great joke is that the "critter" never existed except as the pools themselves.



----Freedem --- Oct 2006



4.
Indeed I do think that many folk, believe all kinds of stuff from the actually true, to the utterly illogical, with no personal discernment one from the others. But that would hardly make any of them a scholar to rely on, any more that one should get their theology studies from a door to door salesman, offering "get out of hell free" cards, on special because the creator of galaxies in greater numbers than beach sand, nonetheless has an ego so weak He cannot exist without shamelessly excessive psychophancy from a major portion of the inhabitants of this particular dust speck.



----Freedem ---June-2007



More to come