For state power to exist, a significant number of men and women must sanction the idea of being ruled by others, a sanction that depends, ultimately, upon the credibility of those who exercise such power. When we vote in an election, we are declaring, by our actions, our support for the process of some people ruling others by coercive means. One of the sadder comments that I heard, just prior to the recent election, was from a radio talk show host whose thoughtful and analytical mind I generally respect.
In response to a caller who complained that Gov. Bush was philosophically inconsistent upon some issue, he declared that "politics is the art of compromise," and that if one wanted principled consistency, one could find it "only in a religion. It derives from the same sentiment, articulated in the actions of Bill Clinton, that truth-telling is simply one of a number of strategies available in efforts to reach political "compromise;" that a lie is as good as the truth if you can get others to believe it.
As Groucho Marx put it: "Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. I have long found nourishment in the words of Richard Weaver: "ideas have consequences.
If I answer "yes," which I would do if I voted, then do my philosophic principles have any real-world meaning to them, or are they simply amusing ideas to be talked about, debated, or dispersed across cyberspace? If I cannot end the division within myself by living with integrity i. I am mankind, as are you, and as Carl Jung so eloquently put it: "if the individual is not truly regenerated in spirit, society cannot be either;" that the individual must realize "that he is the one important factor and that the salvation of the world consists in the salvation of the individual soul.
Time to buy old US gold coins. And, at that point, the majority or even a plurality, a minority, or an individual can enforce their will on everyone else by claiming to represent the will of the people. The only form of democracy that suits a free society is economic democracy in the laissez-faire form, where each person votes with his money for what he wants in the marketplace.
Only then can every individual obtain what he wants without compromising the interests of any other person. But many terms in politics wind up with inverted meanings. The terms liberal left and conservative right define the conventional political spectrum; the terms are floating abstractions with meanings that change with every politician. In the 19th century, a liberal was someone who believed in free speech, social mobility, limited government, and strict property rights.
The term has since been appropriated by those who, although sometimes still believing in limited free speech, always support strong government and weak property rights, and who see everyone as a member of a class or group. Bismarck and Metternich were archetypes. Bracketing political beliefs on an illogical scale, running only from left to right, results in constrained thinking. It is as if science were still attempting to define the elements with air, earth, water, and fire.
Politics is the theory and practice of government. It concerns itself with how force should be applied in controlling people, which is to say, in restricting their freedom. It should be analyzed on that basis. Since freedom is indivisible, it makes little sense to compartmentalize it; but there are two basic types of freedom: social and economic. According to the current usage, liberals tend to allow social freedom, but restrict economic freedom, while conservatives tend to restrict social freedom and allow economic freedom.
But what do you call someone who believes in both types of freedom? Unfortunately, something without a name may get overlooked or, if the name is only known to a few, it may be ignored as unimportant. That may explain why so few people know they are libertarians. Libertarians are the human equivalent of the Gamma rat, which bears a little explanation.
On Nov. People using mail-in ballots had until Oct. The people who vote right out the gate, they should probably pump the brakes and think about it more. For many students like Kaplan who arrived at the polls to vote in-person, this year was their first time voting in a presidential election.
For year-old freshmen students like Alessandra Rivera and Lily Tchividjian, this was their first opportunity to exercise their rights since the voting age in the U.
0コメント