Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to scope of causality

re: scope of causality
ER — (archived)

I believe conservatives view the world as a meritocracy, and those who succeed in it have merit, while those who fail do not. This works fine when conservatives are successful, but what do they do when they fail?

They cannot simply deny that the world is a meritocracy and people sometimes fail through no fault of their own, because that would remove the justification for their successes, they might have to admit that maybe they were just crooked, or perhaps lucky. When the meritocracy deals them a bad hand, even if no fault of their own, they must point their finger at sinister subversive forces (Jews, foreigners, immigrants, Communists, liberals, etc) to explain their own failure. A failed conservative can't simply say he had a run of bad luck (it would deny his base assumption that luck is irrelevant) or that he is incompetent (no human likes to admit that about himself). The sad thng is that conservatives fail to realize that neither luck nor competence have anything to do with your politics.

I believe it would be very instructive to actually poll successful entrepreneurs (the conservative role model) and see how they rated on the political spectrum. I would be willing to bet that entrepreneurial success has no correlation whatsoever to political philosophy. I know that I work in a government bureaucracy, and my colleagues' politics seem to be split about the same as the rest of the population. I always wondered why my right-wing co-workers weren't out there running their own businesses or working their way up corporate bureaucracies instead of toiling in the government bureaucracies they so despise..

Incidentally, just in case my right wing friends think I'm picking on them, I am convinced a symmetrical dynamic seems to be working on liberals, but I'll leave it to someone on the right to work out those details.

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