Vote Republican this election

More a first or second season Dharma & Greg watcher. ALso That 70's Show has it's moments ;)
 
Squiggy said:
I can't buy the "individualism" Ards. Maybe Nationalism/Capitalism. But not individualism.
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Well, that's because you're thinking of people like Pat Buchanan as being right wing. I'm saying that Pat's a flaming socialist.

The thing is, you can't put statists on one end of the spectrum and more statists on the other end of the spectrum and tell us that those are our choices. What is it that's being measured on that sort of spectrum? I don't see any appreciable difference between Ted Kennedy and Pat Buchanan. Poison is poison, regardless of whether it comes in a powder or a gel cap.

The spectrum, as I see it, should place altruism/socialism on one end, and individualism/laissez-faire capitalism on the other end. Altruism is the ethical theory that tells us people exist to serve others, and socialism is its political expression. Individualism is the ethical theory that tells us each man is an end in himself, and laissez-faire capitalism is its political expression.

All forms of socialism: Marxist, Stalinist, Nazi, fascist, welfare-statist, etc, are examples of the philosophy that claims people exist to serve the greater social unit. Whether that unit is defined by class, race or nationality is irrelevant. They all deny the existence of individual rights, and they are all forms of tyranny.

To an advocate of individual rights, it doesn't really matter what label the socialist wears. It matters a great deal to the socialists, though, because they dislike each other almost as much as they dislike individualists. They hate each other because they want to push their particular group as the defining social unit. The Marxists were (are) internationalists who see class as the defining measure of social worth. The Nazis were (are) nationalists who see race as the defining measure of social worth. The German Nazi party hated the Bolsheviks because they believed they were driving a wedge between the German people and weakening the state. The Bolsheviks hated the Nazis because they wanted a world-wide revolution of the proletariat that would dissolve all national boundaries, and the Nazis were fomenting a rabid nationalism among the workers.

Economically, the only difference between the two is that the Marxists believe in state ownership of the means of production, and the Nazis believed in state control of the means of production. :shrug: Semantics.
 
Well said Ards. It causes me to wonder whether it is possible for any of the philosophies could ever exist in a "pure" form.....Or will the shortcomings of each cause a systemic tendency to bastardise itself. ?(
 
unclehobart said:
That seems to be the tenor for most. Either youre a heartless jesus freak with rattlesnakes and rolling in the aisles babbling in tongues spending all of your free time telling your neighbor how to live his life behind closed doors or youre a brain dead brown rice eating commune hippie bootlicking commie tax and spend thief who is jealous of everyone that has more than you with a heroin needle in your arm.
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soooooo funny. :circle: lol
 
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