Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to I'm so damned tired....

Aren't we all
Robert — (archived)

It comes through loud and clear that you're tired of doing the same old thing over and over, and my intention was to do something different.

Below you wrote "Robert had no idea what he was asking of me." But I do. For myself, I'm sick to death of the same old platitudes and vague generalities about how much better we'd all be if we just adhere to the conservative faith...the pitch in that form is just another variety of religion. I have not patience with that snake oil.

Of course there are examples of failed leftist societies, but as Mary Anne points out there are examples of failed, brutal, rightist societies. And there are examples of healthy socialist societies that you pretend don't exist; results count, and the fact that the US ranks behind such "socialist" societies as Sweden and Belgium in overall standard of living can't be excluded from discussion because it's inconvenient for your argument.

Results count. Today we have an abundance of realworld evidence of what happens when conservative ideology is put into practice. We see permanent unemployment and a decline in standard of living in the name of preserving corporate profits. We see a Republican Administration awarding no-bid contracts to well-connected corporate cronies, to rebuild a country we destroyed under false pretenses...I'd have to be a fool to not wonder if there isn't a connection. We see our country saddled with a crushing deficit caused in large part by a tax break to reward Bush's Republican constituency.

But the downside to realworld examples is that they're created by imperfect humans. Both sides can argue that it isn't being done right. You yourself admit that Bush has been a disappointment in the way that he's failed to live up to conservative principles. What I hoped to offer you was a chance to create an idealized model of what conservatism done right might look like, in the spirit of utopian literature. Utopian literature has tended toward happy communalism; I'm curious to see what a utopia based on conservatism might look like.

Don't worry about it. I've tried this sort of thing before, and belly-flopped, and I didn't have high hopes this time. It only cost me a few thousand words to try, and that's a reasonable gamble for what might have been a large payoff. I'm ready to move on.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (96 posts)