02-07-2017, 04:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-07-2017, 04:33 PM by Eric the Green.)
About truth and deception: ultimately we DO need to go beyond our egos, and not just defend the ideas we have said before because we don't want to admit the we are wrong.
We have values, which are universal and which we all share, in varying degrees for each one. We also are fed ideologies, and we accept ideas based on them. They are based on values, but they are political ideas which we think policies must be based on. The important thing as I see it, is to be aware that we hold these ideologies, and be willing to be less attached to them. There is truth in every ideology, to one degree or another. When we make one ideology true, and the opposing ideology false, and defend and accept our ideology in a knee-jerk and unconscious way, that puts our nation in trouble. When we are aware of this, then we can be liberated from the ideology; thus able to see both its value and its limits.
Such ideologies include:
1) racism or nationalism as opposed to multi-culturalism and respect for diversity and social justice. This is related to white vs. people of color
2) militarism vs. pacifism, which relates to the values of peace and war.
3) religious right and cultural traditionalism, vs. secularism and modernism
4) environmentalism vs. technological progress and materialism
5) human rights and democracy vs. authoritarian approaches
and in our society, the chief ideological conflict is:
6) free market, capitalist, trickle-down economics vs. socialism or social welfare programs, equality, etc. This one most relates to the rich vs. poor issue.
On #6 (about which I have also called the capitalist free market side "false ideology #1"), I take the social welfare side more often. But I can respect the virtues of self-reliance, non-dependency, less government, making money through free enterprise, lower taxes, and such. So where is the right balance? I suggest we can only find it if we don't hang on unconsciously and too tightly to one side or the other.
You may disagree with me if I say I'm not doing that. I just want people to let go of the free market ideology as if it were the only correct one, and my observation is that too many people today do this. People who grew up under Reagan or absorbed his ideals are the most likely to do this.
The correct balance must include, as I see it, to understand that government, taxes and redistribution of wealth is needed in some degree. Wealth is power, and too much power in too few hands leads to a society in which most people are struggling just to make a living. That's where I see the balance today. We do depend on each other; we can't all aspire to be independent of each other and hope to have a working civilization. We all need to contribute to society through taxes-- to protect ourselves, each other, and the economy. Concentration and hoarding of unearned and extorted wealth, and lack of regulation on economic behavior, leads to recessions and depressions and to gross inequality and poverty. Humans are not perfect enough yet that we can do without laws and regulations.
Independence and self-reliance are virtues, as well as compassion and fairness. I don't want taxes to be too high, or the government to run all business. Free enterprise allows people to innovate and create wealth on the basis of their own ambition and incentive. Government run enterprises are needed, but some are best left to the private sector. The right balance is needed. And the right balance is not necessarily the current moderate position in politics, if the current balance in a nation is too far to the right or left; today as I see it the balanced position in America is on the left, and pushing things to the left in general makes progress. But sometimes, in some places, progress means correcting policies that went too far in the socialist direction, as for example the revolutions that overthrew the Soviet Empire, and which tried to change China, in the 1989 era.
Can we be free of ideologies as unconsciously-held dogmas, and see instead a good balance of ideas and virtues?
We have values, which are universal and which we all share, in varying degrees for each one. We also are fed ideologies, and we accept ideas based on them. They are based on values, but they are political ideas which we think policies must be based on. The important thing as I see it, is to be aware that we hold these ideologies, and be willing to be less attached to them. There is truth in every ideology, to one degree or another. When we make one ideology true, and the opposing ideology false, and defend and accept our ideology in a knee-jerk and unconscious way, that puts our nation in trouble. When we are aware of this, then we can be liberated from the ideology; thus able to see both its value and its limits.
Such ideologies include:
1) racism or nationalism as opposed to multi-culturalism and respect for diversity and social justice. This is related to white vs. people of color
2) militarism vs. pacifism, which relates to the values of peace and war.
3) religious right and cultural traditionalism, vs. secularism and modernism
4) environmentalism vs. technological progress and materialism
5) human rights and democracy vs. authoritarian approaches
and in our society, the chief ideological conflict is:
6) free market, capitalist, trickle-down economics vs. socialism or social welfare programs, equality, etc. This one most relates to the rich vs. poor issue.
On #6 (about which I have also called the capitalist free market side "false ideology #1"), I take the social welfare side more often. But I can respect the virtues of self-reliance, non-dependency, less government, making money through free enterprise, lower taxes, and such. So where is the right balance? I suggest we can only find it if we don't hang on unconsciously and too tightly to one side or the other.
You may disagree with me if I say I'm not doing that. I just want people to let go of the free market ideology as if it were the only correct one, and my observation is that too many people today do this. People who grew up under Reagan or absorbed his ideals are the most likely to do this.
The correct balance must include, as I see it, to understand that government, taxes and redistribution of wealth is needed in some degree. Wealth is power, and too much power in too few hands leads to a society in which most people are struggling just to make a living. That's where I see the balance today. We do depend on each other; we can't all aspire to be independent of each other and hope to have a working civilization. We all need to contribute to society through taxes-- to protect ourselves, each other, and the economy. Concentration and hoarding of unearned and extorted wealth, and lack of regulation on economic behavior, leads to recessions and depressions and to gross inequality and poverty. Humans are not perfect enough yet that we can do without laws and regulations.
Independence and self-reliance are virtues, as well as compassion and fairness. I don't want taxes to be too high, or the government to run all business. Free enterprise allows people to innovate and create wealth on the basis of their own ambition and incentive. Government run enterprises are needed, but some are best left to the private sector. The right balance is needed. And the right balance is not necessarily the current moderate position in politics, if the current balance in a nation is too far to the right or left; today as I see it the balanced position in America is on the left, and pushing things to the left in general makes progress. But sometimes, in some places, progress means correcting policies that went too far in the socialist direction, as for example the revolutions that overthrew the Soviet Empire, and which tried to change China, in the 1989 era.
Can we be free of ideologies as unconsciously-held dogmas, and see instead a good balance of ideas and virtues?