thefalcon
Squad Officer
Corrupt Corporate Executive in the Warzone
Posts: 51
|
Post by thefalcon on Jul 7, 2010 5:24:39 GMT 1
|
|
|
Post by The_JJ: Solaris Council on Jul 14, 2010 5:27:28 GMT 1
Re Objectivists:
Screw 'em all. I really want them all to 'Go Galt' and starve to death while the world quietly continues to turn even without their 'indispensable' specialness.
Re Grey:
Query: why is your country and are your countrymen any more deserving of help than any other? Why should a nation seek only to protect only those who happen to be born inside its borders? (Yes, I'm a bit of a post-national mutt. My grandparents were Japanese, German, American Scottish (Second generation) and mutty American Irish, but I'm both an American and Swedish citizen. So... Insert Nation First has never made much sense to me... feel free to ignore.)
Politically:
I'm pretty damn socialistic. The exaltation of the free market in the American right bothers me. Denying that the free market is anything but perfect therefore by default lands me left of center. Also, it isn't that I think cash money can be a big motivator. It's that I question whether it should be.
My belief in strong regulation and in a secure safety net also put me in the left wing. That said, entitlement can get out of hand. Honestly I'm a tax and cut Dem. Yes, this will hurt the economy in the short term. Then I break out the graphs on why paying interest on debts is always a loosing proposition. You still pay the same amount... only more! The only benefit is that you do it later... ergo perpetual debt is bad. Otherwise we're running a pyramid scheme with the youngsters (i.e. my generation) holding the short stick. Increasing debt ought to be saved for emergencies, like wars and recessions that need the boost. Government money should be prioritized as such: 1. Edjamacation 2. Investment, which means job training for unemployed, infrastructure, plain old investment in bussinesses that are doing both good (morality/health of nation) and well (not going to waste the federal money). 3. Defense, both in army sense and civil security (FBI etc.) sense. 4. Pensions, subsidized housing/food/health care etc. I do like that Social Security is at least in theory taken from your paycheck. But... less pyramid scheming would be nice.
Socially, I lean left as well. A generally utilitarian maxim of live and let live, but to come down hard on things that prevent that. I think the Darwin's Law (self destructive practices should not be stopped) type things are okay in theory, but often you'll find people who stand to make a lot of money subtlety encouraging such behavior, and the line between harming self and harming others is a hard line to draw. Besides, the government should try to protect people, even from themselves.
Oh, BTW, return war making power to Congress. Stop calling it a war until it's actually been declared. Pet peeve.
Democracy seems the best way to ensure a stable and competent government in the long term, but that does not mean democracy = perfect. Hitler achieved power by perfectly legitimate means within a constitutional framework. It's the best, but it won't work all the time.
Generally, Surly hit it on the nose back on page two.
Religiously: At the moment I'm atheist and damn proud of it, though I've been known to waffle into agnosticism. If pressed, I'll tell you that I don't know what happened before the Big Bang, and that's about it. But I don't hate the religious. See my philosophy section for more. (That said, America is not a Christian nation and I should damn well not have to swear to a God I don't believe in order to pledge my allegiance. The implicit Patriotic must also equal Protestant/Christian/theist/whatever bothers me. Say God Bless America all you want, that I'm okay with. In God We Trust? In (some) God (most) of Us Trust. First Amendment people. No laws respecting the establishment of a state religion.[/rant])
Philosophically:
Nihilist. We're bits of dust that has learned to think about dust. In one hundred years we'll all be dead. Take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy.
... but here and now we are alive. And we've got to believe, or else what's the point? Just because 'good' is a general cultural/genetic construct maintained because it is in Darwinian terms advantageous makes it no less legitimate. Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
Likewise, I'm a determinist, but... so what if everything that has and will happen were set in stone from the first moment of creation? I much prefer to think that every choice I make is the sum of id and superego and rational thought and hormonal imbalance than some cosmic coin toss that magically creates alternate universes.
Oh, and Descartes did some cool stuff with doubt, and he leaves a lot of maybes but, well, if this is all just a frozen moment illusion, go throw yourself off a cliff. Still here? Then start thinking up some more practical things, neh?
And I've never really read a good argument for disproof of causality.
Re Gaming:
I like role play and I'm a sucker for Simulationist thinking, which has not always been the best in the Narrativist inclined Total War universe. Silly me, considering physics in a world with laser bears. Generally I try to mix things up, and one of these days I swear I'm going to run a real ruthless espionage focused nation and really screw you guys over. The Wanderer is leaning close but...
And one final note:
Go read Malthus. Ignore that his predictions were off. He didn't see science coming, so what. Stick to the basic idea: Increases in food production are geometric. Increases in human population are exponential. Worse, we've been using the Earth's resources well past sustainable rates for a while now. Things might well get worse before they get better.
|
|
|
Post by greystone on Jul 14, 2010 14:45:47 GMT 1
Re Grey: Query: why is your country and are your countrymen any more deserving of help than any other? Why should a nation seek only to protect only those who happen to be born inside its borders? (Yes, I'm a bit of a post-national mutt. My grandparents were Japanese, German, American Scottish (Second generation) and mutty American Irish, but I'm both an American and Swedish . So... Insert Nation First has never made much sense to me... feel free to ignore.) The Right, good, moral answer? We're not. I am also a bit of a mutt- and while I never been anything other than an American, I lived in Europe for all of my childhood. The UK, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Ireland, Scotland... My mother is German, a bit cherokee, English, Dutch while my father is 100% 2nd generation Polish. So I understand where you are coming from. I, personally, do not feel it is any governments responsibility to care for anyone elses citizen's. I expect, especially with such national debt that we have, the money not earmarked for trade should be turned inwards before we even think about shipping it somewhere else.
|
|
|
Post by nolispe on Jul 28, 2010 4:03:29 GMT 1
Yay Go! Yeah, the Art of War is one of those books that you really do need to read at somepoint. Can't say I've ever read Clausewitz though.
The Prince is also cool, albeit a bit disturbing when you think about it.
On the original topic: I'm an atheistic empiricist. Politically, I'm an incurable optimist, so i'm a social democrat.
|
|