A friend of mine, who is very much a political conservative (to my chagrin since he is an otherwise sane and intelligent person) said something this morning that prompted me to spell out exactly what I have against conservative politics.
I felt that, with a tiny bit of editing to remove some things very specific to the conversation, the general content of the post was worthy of stating publicly as my position on the topic.
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Conservatives really don’t ever see the incongruity of your logic do you ?
I quote you: “This whole global warming thing is just way for liberals to try and control every aspect of how we live our lives”.
Then you effectively state that it is wrong for people to choose a lifestyle different from “their parents values”… either we’re all free to choose whatever lifestyle we want, or nobody is. If we all are- that includes your children.
You claim you should be free to pollute the air if you want to (even though it’s my air as much as yours) and the government should not interfere in your personal life when you do this harmful thing. But then you demand that the government control whether two people in love are allowed to get married (which is, provably quite harmless to you [whether you believe it is harmless to them or not, is really besides the point now isn't it ?]).
And you know – thank goodness for young people who question their parents values… it’s practically the only reason society progresses. Once upon a time – young people questioned the idea that it was okay to make some people slaves – and they grew to be the people in power and abholish slavery. Today we all think slavery was barbaric- but just 300 years ago, our conservative, good-Christian great-great-grandparents kept slaves and thought it was okay.
Just a few decades ago, young people in this country got the idea that maybe it’s not okay to mistreat people because they happen to be black. In 1975 an anonymous poll at Potch University found 85% of the students there were opposed to appartheid – while their parents kept voting for it.
20 odd years later, they helped put in power the man who freed Nelson Mandela.
In the 60′s a bunch of young people decreed much the same thing in the USA and led to the creation of the civil liberties movement – the very movement today cited by conservatives – the very same conservatives who reject the very purposes of it’s creation…
Luckily we have an answer to this question, which Aristotle already declared and has been reaffirmed by philosophers for 3000 years since. And philosophy makes no exceptions to the rule: “Call to tradition” is a fallacy.
I am not a liberal in fact, but I am definitely more sympathetic to liberals than I am to conservatives. Personally, I evaluate every issue individually and choose the position which I believe is most correct. The reality is 9/10 the one that comes out as “logically the most sensible” also happens to be the one the liberals follow. The other 1/10 times– neither liberals nor conservatives have the answer I think is right.
I can’t think of a single issue in the world today where the conservatives seems to have the right answer.
Why ? Because their thinking is clouded by the fallacy of the call to tradition. It’s interesting that I also don’t know a single conservative who comes from a truly poor background. What conservatives mostly want to conserve it seems… is their own historical wealth, power and position.
I remember (one of) you once stating a massive dislike for Britain’s NHS… well… I think it’s the best damn idea Britain ever came up with. What would you prefer ? A system like that in the USA where 50 million people can’t get any medical care whatsoever ? Not even if they are actively dying ? And the other 250 million have their medical coverage determined by “how much does the operation cost” instead of “will it save a life” ?
Much as I like you some conservatives as people.. I have to say, I absolutely cannot stand their politics.
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Aragon