Posted on 05/06/2002 9:04:32 PM PDT by Monti Cello
My favorite bumper sticker for when I am in Berkeley,:
Save the Planet - Kill Yourself
You mean one from which to order that bumper sticker? No, sorry. But there are places on the Web that will make any one you want, fairly cheaply.
I saw this one tee shirt, I loved it.
Pave the World!
One country
One world
One slab of concrete.
Here is a good, concise definition of the systems.
“Capitalism asserts that property is privately owned and privately controlled;
"Communism says property is commonly owned and government controlled.
“Fascism is an economic and social theory that property, though privately owned, is subject to government control.”
Can you pick out the one that is closest to our current system?
“Capitalism asserts that property is privately owned and privately controlled;Clearly, fascism is somewhere between Communism and Capitalism. I am vindicated!
“Fascism is an economic and social theory that property, though privately owned, is subject to government control.
"Communism says property is commonly owned and government controlled.”
So where do you think the US falls in that group.
Hint; think massive regulation.
Correct, I rest my case.
Hint; think Federal Reserve and Stimulus bills and tax rebates and "cooling down" the economy.
You are wasting your time. If you haven't already noticed, there is an odd little "Nazi's were left-wingers" contingent on FR. I don't understand it myself--some inability to admit there are extremes on all sides, I guess.
In any case, motivated in part by the use of the term "Socialist" in the Nazi party name, and in blatant disregard for the historical meaning of the political terms "left" and "right," these folks seem to be on an indoctrination campaign to convince everyone that Hitler and his thugs were liberals, not old-world right-wingers of a particularly virulent stripe.
I can't speak for the people you describe, but I would opine that thugs of every political stripe start to look pretty much the same as they move toward their ultimate goal, namely domination over the citizenry. They are more alike than they are different.
Tyrants all look pretty much the same despite where (politically) they started their drive for power from.
Visualize World Peace
As a great smoking hole in the desert.
I am in complete agreement with you. In the end, the spectrum between good and evil is the only spectrum that matters. Human beings are great rationalizers, and have demonstrated a perverse ability to warp any ideology to wicked ends.
This does not mean that all ideologies are equal. Communism and fascism, despite their different philosophical foundations, produce evil results because of their false premises. The American system of setting competing factions against one another produces superior results because its premises are true. This structure of competition also reduces the possibility of one faction warping the system too far towards its own selfish ends. This keeps us from the evil extremes the world saw in both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Wow. Those founders sure were smart.
Unquestionably. I wonder if they would recognise the country today.
I'm guessing they would be aghast and would also be concidered to be crackpots and whiners by many if not most of those who inhabit this cyber forum.
JESUS LOVES YOU!
But I think you're an asshole.
Actually, while they might be saddened by some of the aspects of modern America, I don't think they would be at all dismayed. The founders understood very well the base motivations of humanity, and the power of faction to distort the political process. So the continual pressure on the part of the federal government to grow bigger and more intrusive would not suprise them, although I think many of them would disapprove.
On the other hand, I expect the founders would be overjoyed to see how well their commerical experiment has succeeded. The resources generated and distributed by technology and capitalism may have done more to advance the cause of human freedom than all the Congressmen ever elected. As Tony Brown has said, "The only color of freedom is green." A man with money to spend has more freedom than a man who must beg for his bread. The triumph of capitalism is the triumph of liberty.
Last night I finished reading Dinesh D'Souza's "The Virtue of Prosperity." I highly recommend it for anyone feeling pessimistic about America's future. D'Souza does an excellent job of describing the history, achievements, and promises of what he calls technological capitalism. And he makes it very clear that we owe a debt of gratitude to the founders and the other thinkers who foresaw the benefits of a techno-capitalist system.
I wonder what they would call monarchy and theocracy, the traditional manifestations of the Old Right. Is there some tortured logic which can define these as liberal, too?
I agree with you that they knew that government would grow as the natural course of things if left unchecked by a citizenry who cared about freedom. But I disagree that they wouldn't have been dismayed that their plan was so flawed that it left room for it's basic tenets to be ignored and worked around by evil people whose goal is to dominate their fellow man.
I am aware that there is a certain success to be celebrated, but it is mostly by grading on the curve. It is sad to contemplate just how good the world could have been if we were left truly free.
And I wonder how long they would contemplate we have left for the Republic to have relative prosperity in the face of the alarming rate at which we are losing our fundamental rights.
It seems to be about evenly split in this country. The left holds dear certain rights and the right holds dear different ones. They both seek to usurp the rights of the others on their own pet peeves.
Well, don't get too depressed. I am confident that the pendulum has passed the mid-point and liberty is on the upswing.
D'Souza mentions that while the rest of the world had to deal with communism and socialism, we had the welfare state at home. Communism died with the U.S.S.R (the Chinese already realize this, while North Korea and Cuba are simply in denial.) Socialism is losing currency in Europe, central planning has failed in the Third World, and here in the U.S. we have even gotten rid of the welfare entitlement (it's now a limited program, not an entitlement.) Capitalism is victorious, and--with the noteable exception of the Middle East--the rest of the world is in a race to Americanize their economies.
All of this advances the cause of human freedom. As people gain more control of their lives through the blessings of prosperity, look for them to chafe under the reigns of government. After all, people who can provide for themselves don't need the government to provide for them--and when government can't give you something you need or want, all it can do is get in your way. Then you may expect a free people to cast off the chains of government and confine it to its proper role.
Overly optimistic? Perhaps. But I've already seen the world change dramatically once in my life. If the U.S.S.R. can collapse, apparently overnight, I have every confidence that he eminently sensible American people can slay Leviathan.
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