Personal Ideologies

Stan Shannon

Oakman wrote:

I'll let someone else say it for me:

There's a surprise... :rolleyes:

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Chris Austin

I really only want a basic federal government and really agree with a federalist system. I think the government should be there to protect us from violence as well as anything or anyone that would try to curtail our freedoms as well as violate our social customs. As far a social safety-net and social services goes I am not inherently against it as long as it is controlled and decided on locally rather than at the federal level. I just think the federal government should strive to stay out of our daily lives except of course in special situations. I agree that trade free of many restrictions is inherently better than a heavy regulated system. But, where I think we have failed is that the people running the companies and those putting them in power lack any respect for our cultural customs. Instead they have opted for a marginal profit growth at all cost approach that is bad for business in the long term. I have no idea how to regulate morality or a respect for customs rather than to let these bad apples fail and be mindful not to support them. Some other things I've grown to believe are: Democracy seems inherently disadvantaged by people whom would blindly consume anything put in front of them rather than think about what they really want and hold dear. No one should ever have to sacrifice [^] but rather give when they feel it is the right thing to do. Mindless Consumerism (keeping up with the Joneses) is not a good goal in life yet it seems the default. There is no such thing as a "social contract". At least I've never signed one.

Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long

modified on Friday, January 23, 2009 7:56 PM

Shepman

Stan Shannon wrote:

As to being interesting, I am the most least interesting person I have ever met.

Arrogance can be simply an appreciation for one's own skill and talents. In your case, however, it appears to be a old man's fantasy. Anything you have said that might possibly be considered interesting you have said so many times that one has to assume that you are simply cutting and pasting. Like Ilion before you, you have given up attempting to communicate - and simply wish to post insults and inanities.

Stan Shannon

Shepman wrote:

Anything you have said that might possibly be considered interesting you have said so many times that one has to assume that you are simply cutting and pasting

I just use this as a froum for refuting commonly held misperceptions about culture, history, politics etc because those misperciptions deserve to be refuted. But, I don't repeat myself any more than does anyone else around here. There is only one known political formula for both optimal economic and social stability which also provides for optimal human liberty and freedom. That formula is the one articulated and formalized by our founding generation. The further we move away from that formula the more we sacrifice either economic stability, social stability or liberty, or (most likely) all of the above. It doesn't matter what anyone wishes things to be like, that is simply a fact.

Shepman wrote:

Like Ilion before you, you have given up attempting to communicate - and simply wish to post insults and inanities.

Except that I don't do that. You just don't like what I communicate. It is your own little way of trying to limit free expression - find a way to demonize what you don't want to hear, an altogether too common tactic in our modern political world.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Sahir Shah · modified on Friday, January 23, 2009 7:01 PM

Stan Shannon wrote:

...tyranny... freedom ...liberty.

You support legislation such as the Patriot Act and yet you scream tyranny if the federal government does anything beyond printing currency and securing the national borders. Make up your mind; are you for or against tyranny?

Rob Graham

Ditto (my turn)

Sahir Shah

yeah and he's punny too.

Shepman · modified on Friday, January 23, 2009 7:01 PM

Stan Shannon wrote:

My core belief is

"f*** this goddamned collectivist piece of sh*t country."[^]

Stan Shannon

Shepman wrote:

"f*** this goddamned collectivist piece of sh*t country."[^]

Indeed...

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Stan Shannon

So, precisely how does... "I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults. "I believe in my fellow citizens." ... square with libertarian principles? Clearly, you can't 'believe in your fellow citizens' and still fear to give them the freedom and power to participate in defining the rules and standards that define their civilization.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Stan Shannon

Sahir Shah wrote:

Make up your mind; are you for or against tyranny?

I am both for it and against it.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Oakman

Shepman wrote:

Stan Shannon wrote: My core belief is "f*** this goddamned collectivist piece of sh*t country."[^]

People used to say that Ilion and Adnan were opposite sides of the same coin. It turns out that Stan and Adnan are the same side of the same coin.

Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

BoneSoft

That pretty much covers it.

Visit BoneSoft.com for code generation tools (XML & XSD -> C#, VB, etc...) and some free developer tools as well.

Shepman

Stan Shannon wrote:

Except that I don't do that.

No, of course not. When you wrote, "f*** Lowery, f*** Obama, f*** the democrat party, f*** the liberals, and f*** this goddamned collectivist piece of sh*t country." you weren't trolling, it just seemed that way.

BoneSoft · modified on Friday, January 23, 2009 7:56 PM

That all sounds good. And you touched on something, with two points, that's bothered me for some time, though it's hard to put a finger on and suggest a solution for:

Chris Austin wrote:

Democracy seems inherently disadvantaged by people whom would blindly consume anything put in front of them rather than think about what they really want and hold dear.

Chris Austin wrote:

Mindless Consumerism (keeping up with the Joneses) is not a good goal in life yet it seems the default.

I think we as Americans, having not grown up during some of the harder times, really have no idea what it's like to suffer or to really have to fight for something. Most people today take way too much for granted, and never even consider what was done in the past to give them that luxury. I myself, having grown up in relatively safe times, struggle with this. I know how lucky I am, but it takes constant concentration to remember what was done to provide that safety. When the most important thing you need to consider during a day is who some celebrity is dating, something in our system has failed. On consumerism... I know a lot of people who are in debt up to their eyeballs, and don't know that there's a better way to live. They trade in their 2 year old car every 2 years for a brand new car and a brand new car loan. We now rely WAY too much on credit. When not two generations ago, credit was a dirty word. I am damn glad that I have money in the bank (a little, for however long that's worth something) and the house is all I owe on.

Visit BoneSoft.com for code generation tools (XML & XSD -> C#, VB, etc...) and some free developer tools as well.

Sahir Shah

Stan Shannon wrote:

I am both for it and against it.

you been smoking the poppy again?

Stan Shannon

Sahir Shah wrote:

you been smoking the poppy again?

Never even seen a poppy. As I said above, tyranny is essential to human civilization. Civilization is defined by the establishement of rules and standards of civil conduct which people can be forced to obey. If you don't have that, you do not have civilization. The question that western civilization was finally able to answer was how do you provide for human liberty and freedom in that context. And, as I said above, the answer is to separate out the various sources of tyranny into competing camps, with only a very slight advantage being given to the political authority of the people themselves.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Stan Shannon

Shepman wrote:

When you wrote, "f*** Lowery, f*** Obama, f*** the democrat party, f*** the liberals, and f*** this goddamned collectivist piece of sh*t country." you weren't trolling, it just seemed that way.

I wan't trolling. I meant it. I still do.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.