Aretae

The virtue of excellence

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Political Differences

Liberal: The right laws can get us good results
Conservative: the right leadership can get us good results
Libertarian: Government activity can't get us good results.
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6 comments:

Belinda said...

One of these things is not like the other. Why two posed positively and one negatively?

Me:

The wrong laws can screw us.
The wrong leadership can screw us.
The wrong systems can screw us.

What am I?

The right, or at least sufficiently not-wrong, laws leadership, or government might be create a situation where we have prosperity or happiness or unicorns dancing on rainbows. Their entire absence? I don't think that that is exactly it either.

March 23, 2011 at 8:36 PM
perfidy said...

That last comment was me, perfidy. Somehow my wife was logged in on my rss reader.

March 23, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Aretae said...

Perfidy,

I'm working up to an anti-Plato post. This is round one. I'm trying to outline how different the libertarian/anarchist/secessionist take is from the other PoVs. And I do think it's that different.

The right tends to think that leaders and morals will help.
The left tends to think that laws and safeguards will help.
The libertarian thinks that none of those kinds of things can help, but all of them will make us worse-off.

March 23, 2011 at 11:32 PM
rightsaidfred said...

... Government activity can't get us good results...The libertarian thinks that none of those kinds of things can help, but all of them will make us worse-off.

Under any system there are winners and losers. We have today the rise of an ersatz parasite class. We can't kill them or exclude them, so my take is that modern society consists of the caring and feeding of parasites.

March 24, 2011 at 10:19 AM
foseti said...

I think you understand liberalism and libertarianism pretty well. Unfortunately, like almost everyone, your understanding of conservatism is pretty limited.

I spent a couple years reading the serious conservative books. I know of no other way to understand conservatism. It's not like liberalism, if you don't seek out an understanding of it, you can't get one vicariously.

I don't even know how to re-phrase your original line. The conservative doesn't seek "good results" he just seeks "least bad results."

I'd suggest:

"Conservative: following the wisdom of the past will sometimes result in the least bad results."

March 24, 2011 at 6:09 PM
drpat said...

To restate foseti's statement in Belinda's format:

Changing things will probably screw us.

March 24, 2011 at 9:27 PM

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