Category: News and Views
Every so often I hear some conservative or religious person ranting about how "we," who ever "we" are, need to return to some set of values that were supposed to have existed in the past. Funnily enough I never hear of any particular game plan they have that will guarantee they will get what they wish and that society will be overall better for doing so. I can't say I've ever heard of any society that went from liberal to conservative and survived, but then again I'm no world history buff. Maybe some of you know of such a thing existing in the past or even the present. I fear the only way you could guarantee such a thing working would be the stuff of science fiction and spy novels. Mass hypnosis, memory editting, and even, *gasp*, brainwashing! In the end, it just seems like a sign of somebody who can't stand social change or maybe just can't stand it that their guy or their group isn't running things anymore.
Not only that but their version of "what was" usually bears more a resemblance to nostalgia than what actually was.
It can also be argued that we are where we are in part because we were where we were. Definitely the roll-back folks aren't thinking straight in my view.
Actually, I can think of a perfect example that's not only survived but is still doing so. They're called The aimish. But, uh, I think that's a bit extreme... lol
And they survive in an artificial space.
By that I mean they have special exemptions for their schools / education, for their land and taxes, all sorts of things. They're not truly surviving with society, they're more like being kept alive on a game preserve as it were.
Nostalgia sure does tend to present a highly editted and remixed version of real events. People who want to return to some great time in the past had better expect the injustices of the past, too.
I tend to agree. There was a blind guy running for president back during the '08 campaign as a write-in candidate and he definitely seems like that sort of person. And he supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, which automatically cost him my vote even forgetting his absurd policy ideas.
Oh seriously, I don't like to have power but if I were to run for president one day, a lot of things would change, and these roll back people would understand the differences....Perhaps I should stick to further developing my views and writing things though...But we'd have an IQ limit for presidential candidates when I was done. There'd be no more George Bush's, at least no more with an IQ of 80 or whatever...actually I can't help but to wonder what his IQ was. but I'm getting off topic.
Just because you can appreciate the past, and even if you romanticise it a bit too much, that doesn't mean your an idiot. But I completely agree with you about Bush.
If anything it's liberal societies that are stuck in a time warp. I live in the ultimate one, but Mr Sponge doesn't want to leave, and I don't want our daughter estranged from her dad.
We are taxed to death, yet have infrastructure worse than a third world country. The mindset of many native borns and immigrants is like something out of the '60's, or even the early 20th Century, with a great amount of villainizing the rich. I have never seen so many actively seeking or receiving a handout, yet I am always amazed at the things they CAN afford, including overseas travel that goes on for months. Some of these so and so's intentionally keep wives at home or keep them working part time, to stay within the limits of programs like WIC.
When I moved here in '02, voters overwhelmingly passed a law that would end bilingual education. Their will was overturned with the backing of the teachers' union. How is discouraging immigrants learning English forward and progressive? I have never seen a need for so many interpreters, services provided in so many languages. Isn't packing the old country in a suitcase and continuing to live by its ways being stuck in a time warp?
I once saw a newspaper article that talked about increasing course requirements for college bound high school students...to courses that were required in Florida 20 years ago. Every so often I see an article, like law enforcement officers' propensity for violence at home, that ran in Florida 15 or 20 years ago.
Physicians pay so much in malpractice insurance up here than they do in other states, only the oldest, most established can afford to stay in practice (mine is 76, the one I have in mind to replace him should he die or retire is nearing 60). This reduces some patients with non life threatening problems to the emergency room, causing wait for those with actual life threatening emergencies, and I don't know what the hangup is here about the Doctors' Walkin Clinic franchise. It is a very efficiently run little private operation where you can be seen for non life threatening emergencies, yet the only one I know of here is way over in Natick. We are reduced to government public health for minor problems.
I know women who think the abortion of a handicapped child is a 'woman's choice'. Excuse me while I vomit. Isn't compassion for and love of one's handicapped child a value of a more advanced society? There are many more people who gravitate towards warm weather conservative states than here, and liberal Rhode Island and New York are also projected to lose population.
Okay, nice issues here. I'll take a few of them and discuss. I have no problems with socialised programs, provided that the country holding them can afford it. However, I do have serious issues with people being able to afford huge things like holidaying in foreign countries and still receiving monitary assistance. I totally agree that immigrants need to learn the language of the country in which they settle. There should be no bilingual education. On the flip side, I think Americans should learn other languages, but only to be more cultured, not to cater to immigrants. I also fully agree with courses for college bound students being more difficult and more enriching than many are today. I'm a supporter of true socialised healthcare. So of course, I see nothing wrong with clynics or turning to the government for help. That said, I also think that private places should be allowed for those who prefer them and that government should recognise science-based naturopathic medicine as valid. I believe in abortions, particularly in cases where the child will be so handicapped that he/she will never be able to take care of him/herself, to understand basic things, to know who he/she is etc. It's far more compassionate to not let such a child be born than to birth it and not be able to care for it or to die, leaving it alone in the world with no idea why, only that Mommy's not here. Also, some people simply aren't able, financially, mentally or even physically, to take care of a severely handicapped child. I'm not talking about small things but huge ones as I've described. I love the warm weather, and if I stay in America, I may move one day but I need to find a place where I can live and feel comfortable mentally as well.
To Post 9, I think in many ways you're probably right: while the right tends to be rabid in its own ways, the left most definitely tries to put targeted groups into what I think of as virtual game preserves. Not good for anyone: minority, market, religion or name your pet project. And by virtual game preserve I mean different standards for different groups, or actions being ok simply because it is ... religion, market or government ... or name your association.
These are as you describe, all artificial fish bowls where time stops because special regulations are made to support a particular structure. Sometimes it's as simple as initially giving a fair shake to a ggroup, but going to far by providing unfair advantage. And you're right about the groups you mentioned, but it's also true of markets, religions and everything else. Perhaps people and organizations, if they saw themselves as being put on an artificial game preserve, would think twice before trying to get special advantage. The pig is happy when you feed it all summer, but would it eat up if it knew your purpose was ham at Christmas?
Do we abort children if they suddenly become that disabled at the age of 5 as well then due to an accident?
Anyway to answer the op - liberal and conservative mean different things in different countries. Conservatives here aren't as conservative as conservatives in the US.
The good things of the past should be preserved or brought back, and the bad things of the past and present should be eliminated and replaced with something better. The past wasn't all good. The present certainly isn't, and I think there will always be something to complain about.
I rather like British conservatives: it's more what we used to say in college, that often liberals feel and react, while conservatives think and reflect. Well here in the U.S. conservatives aren't like that, they just use the same mechanisms as the left, only with a bit more chutzpah and for their ends of course.
It would be a bit like gladiators if we could just fence both sides off in an arena somewhere, throw the occasional meat and tofu in there to goad them / keep them going, then pay per view could show it and we'd pay off the national debt.
To Godzilla-On-Toast,
This may be "off thot" in some respects and yet...
The question, "Can you Roll Back Society?"
Sometimes "the good old days," are not so long time ago,
more so numbering a few weeks regarding my thots personal
at this time.
What I am thinking about is this BP Oil Spill mess.
Yes, "if only" we could as a peoples of the world
roll back time and go to those "simpler" days when
from that horrendez oil spill that continues days upon days
to spill forth thousands upon thousand gallons a day...
The lives initially destroyed when from the rigs flown
then all this absolute mess...
Fishermen loosing livlihoods,
Waterways and sensitive land areas destroyed,
Breeding grounds for fish, etc... in danger
Being liberal or conservative,
We all are in need of fresh drinking water...
For society to Roll Forward, as it were,
never minding Roll Backing
Answers to this massive clean-up are needed
as well as the capping of this spill.
o.k. Thanks G-O-T for allowing me to share here
~Connie
Hmm, very good question. I do believe in euthanasia, but usually, it's for those who have a living will and who have expressly stated that they do not wish to stay alive in such a situation. Of course, a five-year-old couldn't do that. I'd say so long as there's no brain activity i.e. coma or something or so long as there was absolutely no chance of recovery and it was a truly severe case, the decision should be left up to the parents. Of course, at that age, it would be extremely difficult for them, I'm sure. But it would also be difficult at any stage of life I suppose. I certainly agree about the good things coming back and the bad ones being left behind, though some of my ideas on what's good and bad would probably upset most people. Good point about gladiators. *smile* You were joking but I'm not. They're one of those things I think should be brought back, though only for serious criminals. And yes, it would definitely be a good way to pay off debt. Connie, I was unaware that the oil spill was still continuing. I pretty much only follow Greek news and haven't even been reading that lately. But you're absolutely right. Something must be done and the sooner the better. It involves all people and animals not to mention The Earth itself.
There is a place and time for everything, and in my opinion (I'm probably going to get some explosions...) most if not all societies on Earth exibit signs of a sick society if not a dying one. If you don't know what I'm referring to read Friday or I'll explain, (either one). Unfortunately, we can't go back. What is done is done. Choices have been made, but the real question is what is going to be done to make/save our future?
This is a good point, which brings me to a point of my own. Many people see everything as sick and sad and broken. This is sad in and of itself if your whole point of view denies you from seeing any good in anything. So people think they can fix the whole planet and solve all the broken bits. Unfortunately, such solutions either involve every last person on the planet adopting a given political or religious point of view, or the mass extinction or at least punishment of some real or perceived enemy who is seen as responsible for it all. Neither of these solutions are good ones. Next?
...well, like with this oil spill in the gulf
This is a, "sick and sad and broken situation."
This first attempt has not worked where
the mud was being poured down into the leak
with the thot that then cement would be added...
Now onto the attempting of another possible solution,
that of making a clean cut where the leak is pouring out
and then capping it..
This may or may not work... except to say, every effort
must be made with the thot that eventually something has
got to take. {well, the hope}
I guess what I found so upsetting is that it seemed
the head of the oil corporation at first seemed
to not to desire the thotful recommendations of others.
There easily could be some un-college education person
that very well could offer a suggestion that would provide
a workable solution whether to the leak being no longer &/or
to the clean-up.
{like there was a farmer who presented a clean-up where by
hay was used as a mop up soak up solution}
Again, a need for politics to be placed aside.
True, it is no one person's fault...
Placing blame is not going to aide in all of this
and yet where mistakes were made
as they come to be recognized
Then so too there is a need to implement new
safety standards that we may all benefit so as this
may come to rather be a healing and learning process.
Oh yeah like the battery in the control panel, that they a. knew about, and b. had been dead for weeks ...
I don't know much about this. Why can't they simply remove the container from the ocean or wherever it is? I mean, it must be in a tank, but even if it's on a boat, I've heard of those being removed from the water. Of course, that won't help the clean-up but it would stop further leakage.