08-17-2016, 05:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-17-2016, 06:17 PM by Eric the Green.)
(08-17-2016, 02:34 PM)Mikebert Wrote: Bob, you have been talking about this values stuff for years. You have never spelt it out. Values are some of the most hard-wired aspects of a persons sense of self. What one believes about how the world works (what I call the paradigm) is much more changeable. For example, I used to believe that financial panics like those in 1873, 1893 or 1929-32 did not happen anymore. So did a lot of people. Then 2008 happened. I changed my mind, so, I imagine, did lots of people. Another example. Dick Cheney and many others believed that whereas US meddling in the ME might lead to blowback overseas, it posed no threat to the homeland. Then 911 happened, and Dick Cheney seemed to lose his marbles.
In neither of these situation did values (i.e. emotionally-charged beliefs) change. I still hold the same things to be ethically important after 2008 as before. I suspect the same is true for Cheney. All that changed was value-neutral beliefs about how the world works.
Excellent point, and I agree. Paradigms and worldviews and beliefs about how the world works can change more easily than values and ethics as you describe them.
The trickle down theory of economics is one of those things that people can change their mind about, even if one still values hard work and self-reliance in a general sense. That's the principle paradigm that needs to change now. It is stubbornly held, no doubt. But a shift can happen among some people. It just takes some, maybe 5%, to move elections. And the general ideas such as "politics doesn't matter" and "my votes don't count; politicians are all the same," are also ideas that can, and need, to shift, especially among millennials (even though these ideas were also widely held by boomers when they were young).
It can't be emphasized enough that millennials need to turn out. It's not just a question of who is president, but who is in all the other offices. A major shift can and must happen, and it needs to begin this year. That is Bernie's Revolution now.