political philosophy
FDR's Pipe Dream
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.
Redistribution?
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and was very much in favor of redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in and the occasional chat with her professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.
He responded by asking how she was doing in school.
Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?"
She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung over."
Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I have worked really hard for my grades! I have invested a lot of time and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!
Her father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican Party."
Gandhi: Be the Change
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
China Steps on the Gas
China represents the only society on this planet to weather the transition from pre-industrial to postmodern intact and gaining strength. The American Experiment is merely a chapter or two compared to the volumes of patient, pragmatic, skilled governing that has led one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse areas on the planet to remain intact as a single country. The USSR couldn't do it, Europe is only beginning to get serious about it, Africa is years away from pulling together, and even the USA is too young a nation to judge its success.
We in the West like to think of ourselves as more advanced because we've invented enviable and useful technology. But when we consider that America is still making up its mind how to deal with the fundamental questions that come with being a secularly governed, pluralistic, market-aware society, China has kept a tight reign and is marching at an alarming rate toward all the goals we imagine are our inheritance.
I'm a Progressive Conservative
Having grown weary of the enmity between the compassionate, hard-working, generous people I know from all points on the political spectrum, and having watched for a long time the forces at work, I've identified what I believe is the key point of tension and my personal strategy for addressing it.
The two-part key point of tension is this: people are continually tempted to use problematic means to achieve admirable ends; people tend to justify their own means by focusing on their own intentions and criticize the means chosen by others by ignoring their intentions. In short, we are comfortable with our own shortcuts but find fault with those of others. People of all shades of social/political persuasion do this all the time. I'll come back to this in a second, but first let me offer my solution.
