You should take this ( http://www.politicalcompass.org/ ) test. It uses a very different means of idnetifying people's political orinetation than the almost rock solid red state/blue state distinction we hear in the US. They use a graph with two different axes: social and economic. On the social axis are libertarian and authoritarian. And on the economic are left (liberal) and right (conservative). Keep in mind that liberal and conservative are not the same as what we think they are here in the US. Liberals, under this system, would actually be Republicans and conservatives would be Democrats, economically speaking.
I've taken this test several times over the past few years and I have recently undergone a pretty drastic change in the place I show up on. I need to look up where I showed up the first time I took it. That'd be interesting.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Voting is for dumbies
It’s hard to imagine that in less than a year we’ll start seeing the two major political parties in this country vying, once again, for their turn to make all of the wrong decisions in the executive branch of our nation’s government. I’m talking about the 2008 presidential election, of course. Since we’re watching the rapid approach of what will likely be another travesty, I decided to express my biggest concern with choosing the candidate for whom I want to vote.
I should start out by telling you that in the last election I voted for the Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. In fact that is the only party that has ever received my votes. But not long after the election I started doing some reading and thinking and I don’t think that justice is nearly as important in any libertarian as it should be. I suppose I should qualify what I mean by justice before going on. in scripture the Israelites were commanded to show kindness to the those who were weak. The picture that is painted in much of the Levitical and Deuteronomic literature could best be summed up as an ethics of need. The reason that I can write-off a whole group of people in this regard is that Libertarians are notorious for their belief in human autonomy and social compartmentalization. In their view the government and private sector (everyday life) need to be separated or liberty is lost. They believe that it is the job of the private sector to care for people in whatever ways are necessary.
I suppose I could say that I do like their use of the term liberty but there’s just too much separation between what liberty is to them and what it is to me. While they maintain that liberty is simply autonomy I belief that the evil in us and the destruction that it causes means that liberty is not found in fewer boundaries. Liberty is found when I must serve and accept the service of others. And to be perfectly honest I’m not too terribly sure that government needs to be separated from that. In fact, it seems that the best examples of the private sector these days are corporations. It we remove restraint from many (if not most) of the large corporations, the result is hardly an elevation of the democratic franchise of all people. The needs of the people for good food, clean air and healthy communities are trampled on by the desire of stock holders to make profits. That is just tyranny in private hands. I think that there are much more acceptable and thoughtful ways of thinking of liberty than to say that as long as the government isn’t crossing any lines things are fine.
And there’s my problem, it’s hard to find a party that is saying that in the US. I hope to hear some thoughts on this subject.
Grace and Peace,
Jared
I should start out by telling you that in the last election I voted for the Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. In fact that is the only party that has ever received my votes. But not long after the election I started doing some reading and thinking and I don’t think that justice is nearly as important in any libertarian as it should be. I suppose I should qualify what I mean by justice before going on. in scripture the Israelites were commanded to show kindness to the those who were weak. The picture that is painted in much of the Levitical and Deuteronomic literature could best be summed up as an ethics of need. The reason that I can write-off a whole group of people in this regard is that Libertarians are notorious for their belief in human autonomy and social compartmentalization. In their view the government and private sector (everyday life) need to be separated or liberty is lost. They believe that it is the job of the private sector to care for people in whatever ways are necessary.
I suppose I could say that I do like their use of the term liberty but there’s just too much separation between what liberty is to them and what it is to me. While they maintain that liberty is simply autonomy I belief that the evil in us and the destruction that it causes means that liberty is not found in fewer boundaries. Liberty is found when I must serve and accept the service of others. And to be perfectly honest I’m not too terribly sure that government needs to be separated from that. In fact, it seems that the best examples of the private sector these days are corporations. It we remove restraint from many (if not most) of the large corporations, the result is hardly an elevation of the democratic franchise of all people. The needs of the people for good food, clean air and healthy communities are trampled on by the desire of stock holders to make profits. That is just tyranny in private hands. I think that there are much more acceptable and thoughtful ways of thinking of liberty than to say that as long as the government isn’t crossing any lines things are fine.
And there’s my problem, it’s hard to find a party that is saying that in the US. I hope to hear some thoughts on this subject.
Grace and Peace,
Jared
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