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How can one become Liberal?

Gardener said:
I don't view the world through the lens of somebody else's pre-formed ideology, myself, and so when folks indulge in politics as if it involved the application of mutually exclusive dichotomies, I usually find myself objecting to the characterizations any "side" applies to the other. It may be comforting to view the world with rigid demarkations, but I think the world is more complex than that.

I see distinctions between liberals and authoriratian leftists, myself, just as I see distinctions between conservatives and rigid fundamentalists. IMO, one should form a view of the world from the bottom up rather than the top down by forming one's values first and then developing an ideology from the values rather than adopting the ideology and then twisting the values to conform witht he idology.

In terms of why one would be a liberal, though, I think it may help to discuss what liberality *is* rather than specific attitudes or policies to which somebody has applied the term "liberal" . In my own way of looking at it, one basic distinction between conservatism and liberality lies in the way one views social institutions, social order and traditions, conservatives placing a higher value on the preservation of institutions and order (the "conserve" in conservative having to do with conserving institutions) and liberals a higher value on social justice and an increased willingness to change these institutions. Women would not be voting were it not for liberal ideology.

There are certainly extremes involved no matter what the ideology, and imo, most of the extremes derive from people who do not understand the underlying values and who either simply conform to the label or react againstt he opposing label. Conservatism taken to its extreme can result in societies in stasis as institutionalized oppression (political Islamism being a prime example) whereas liberality taken to its extreme can end up with an approach that throws outt he baby with the bath water, failing to preserve that which *should* be preserved.

In any case, I would say that the best approach to politics is to base ones attitudes on real values rather than deciding one is going to be a "conservative", a "liberal", a "libertarian" or anything else.

Oh, my, I cannot believe nobody responded to this post.

Let me be the first and give you a round of applause. :applaud

Unfortunately, this wonderful post is lost into such a piece of sh!t thread.
 
Middleground said:
Oh, my, I cannot believe nobody responded to this post.

Let me be the first and give you a round of applause. :applaud

Unfortunately, this wonderful post is lost into such a piece of sh!t thread.


I would have to agree......excellent post....
 
I think both sides have extremes. It is sad that so many are ideologues instead of opting to be free thinkers.
 
Gardener, wow. I aspire to someday be that coherent and articulate
Well said
 
GySgt said:
Oh. So the partisan tactic is to claim that "neo-cons" are out to control every aspect of your life through religion....and "Liberal-wingnuts" are determined to place America on a path towards anarchy.

Sounds like political paranoia to me. Funny thing is that "idiot voters" vote for people who merely want to be in office....nothing more.

Well yes, if we're defining extremes the right is totalitarian and the left is anarchy. Thank god we're still in the middle. But since 9/11 the population has been afraid of it's own shadow and is now willing to live in an underground society like that in THX-1138 where you can't open your medicin cabinet without someone on a video screen asking you what's wrong.

If 9/11 didn't happen though, I guess we'd still be on the road toward a society like the one in Soylent Green. Where meat is illegal, people go to suicide clinics when they reach a certain age and "Soylent Green is People!" (man, gotta love that Charlton Heston:lol: ).

Anyway wait and see... Wait and see.
 
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