Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Well, I just stuck what I thought was a good news item, on the thread, lacking a better place for it...
Phsrynk, what you have read is a microcosmism of the big picture politics you dislike.
In one corner, you have people who want to be left alone to live their lives, to succeed or fail, on their own terms. They may or may not be concerned about the big picture future, but either way they want their choices to be their own. If they want help, they'll ask for it.
In the other corner, you have people who are concerned about the big picture failings of the society, and want to make the world a better place. And the best way to do that is to use power (whether it be State, evangelical, incentivization, or any other) to get people to change. Whether they want to or not. Whether it's actual good for them in the long term (which at the time can only be a projection). These people don't value the viewpoints of the leave-me-alone types, and tend to look down their noses at them (they're too simple to understand the failing that need to be changed).
The current political situation has come about because enough of the leave-me-alone types have gotten fed up with having their lives twisted, turned, and doubled over by the consequences of the world-savers. It turns out that there are a lot of them, about as many as there are world-savers.
The world-savers have been used to a monopoly on control, which has been successfully challenged. The response is - Gasp...How dare they. Back in your place! And hence the gridlock, and each side digging in, and the nasty politics you've seen.
I obviously am in the leave-me-alone camp.....
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I think that describes it exceptionally well. Let me suggest a few thoughts to make it clear from the other (world-savers') view, of which I lean more towards. I understand and appreciate the desire to be left alone particularly when others have shown their incompetence at fixing things. No argument. But the people who are agitating to get things changed see those in the leave-me-alone camp as crucial to solving problems - unwilling to make, or even consider making, changes that might be positive for us all. If people aren't willing even to consider change, then we're stuck in the same situation until it all craps out (if it does). Pick your topic of change - it doesn't matter. Want to talk about energy, carbon, and the environment? I see the people who just want to keep their 2000+ square foot homes in the suburbs with their green lawns that they water from precious water from the aquifer and consuming gasoline to commute in their vehicles to town as a large immovable mass that just wants to be left alone. I appreciate that but if doesn't move, we could be in really deep doo-doo if any of this is real. I consider the possibility that they're real to be finite and if the consequences are at all large, we're toast pretty soon unless all of us, including the immovable object, shifts. Hey, it's war time, as far as I'm concerned. We need people to sign up and soon.