Burying the Hatchet

I really need to apologize to Tim Weaver.  Regardless of who is right (the judgment of which hinges exclusively on your political ideology, I would wager), Tim is trying to make a career as a writer and I am egging him on, flaming him, and baiting him into posting immature comments that can be traced back to him since I am assuming Tim Weaver is his real name.  For Tim’s sake, I hope it’s not.

Fortunately, I am not a professional writer, have no intention to be, do not intend on ever running for political office (something I’m sure by now is out of the question based on my pointed apolitical incendiery commentary), but most importantly, my real name and identity is nowhere firmly attached to this blog.  Maybe if you tried hard enough you could figure it out, but why bother?

I think what drew me to his blog to begin with is the fact that I spend more time reading views I disagree with than views I do agree with.  Why do I want to read what I already think and believe?  It’s refreshing once and a while, but by and large, I care much more about what the other side thinks because if I don’t shit test my own beliefs, do I even have beliefs?

Anyway, I think this is pretty interesting.  A few posts ago, Tim posted his political compass.  Not surprisingly, we are nearly diametric opposites:

Economic Left/Right: 5.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 2.56

 

Since the compass itself isn’t telling, I’m going to reveal my answers to every question on the test, with some brief explanations:

 

If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.
Disagree

There wasn’t a “neither” option here – I believe the interests of corporations do serve humanity since corporations are comprised of humans.  Ultimately a human makes every decision that drives the behavior of a company, and as evil as CEOs are portrayed to be, having actually worked in the corporate world, the people at the top are dumber than they are wicked.

 

I’d always support my country, whether it was right or wrong.
Agree

Except for extreme cases (e.g., Hitler).  No government is perfect, so I’ll take some bad with the good, which at least for my country is vastly tilted on the good side.

 

No one chooses his or her country of birth, so it’s foolish to be proud of it.
Strongly Disagree

You might as well not be proud of anything then.  You don’t get to choose anything about yourself.

 

Our race has many superior qualities, compared with other races.
Agree

Blacks can sing and are amazing athletes.  Asians are good at math.  White people?  Well… we can hold our liquor.  I don’t know.  People frequently make a leap in assuming if you think there are racial differences then you believe in segregation or some kind of different rights system.  That isn’t the case.  I do believe in intrinsic genetic differences.  In as much as our race has superior qualities, it also has plenty of inferior ones as well.

 

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Agree

We wouldn’t have beaten Hitler without Russia’s help.  They were our friend as long as we had a common enemy.

 

Military action that defies international law is sometimes justified.
Strongly Agree

I don’t have any interest in “international law.”  The very idea is stupid.  Law is enforced with force, and we currently possess the force.  If we feel it is in our nation’s interest, we should do it.  Again, this is a giant gray area.  I do believe that there are such a thing as war crimes, but again, whoever is the victor defines the crimes.  The whole thing is kind of silly.

 

There is now a worrying fusion of information and entertainment.
Agree

It’s hard to get news that isn’t tailored to be entertaining.  I don’t think that this is bad, except that a lot of good information is skipped because it isn’t entertaining, and a lot of facts are twisted to make the story better.  This is dangerous, but it’s probably inevitable.

 

People are ultimately divided more by class than by nationality.
Agree

Money talks, bullshit walks.  People at the top have more in common with people at the bottom, and that crosses all boundaries.  Nationality is just arbitrary lines drawn on a map.  Class has to be earned somehow, and the people who earn it usually share a lot of common traits.

 

Controlling inflation is more important than controlling unemployment.
Strongly Agree

What good is a job if your money is devaluing faster than you can earn it?

Because corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily protect the environment, they require regulation.
Agree

I think we overregulate, but it’s better to err on the side of caution.  I think the “environment” is overblown, but we’ve also seen what happens when corporations can do whatever is cheapest.  We shouldn’t go down that road again.

“from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is a fundamentally good idea.
Strongly Disagree

This statement is total crap.  What defines need?  How much is “from”?  There is no way to translate an idea like that into anything that is in any way remotely fair.

It’s a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product.
Strongly Disagree

If you morons stop buying it, it will stop being a product.  Buying spring water is for yuppie idiots.  Half the time, they buy it because they want the convneint to-go bottle.

Land shouldn’t be a commodity to be bought and sold.
Strongly Disagree

Nonsense.  Land is the most valuable commodity on the planet earth (except time) because it is the only thing that is known with certainty to be finite.  I want the ability to choose however much or little land I have direct control over.  If it isn’t bought and sold on the market then it means it is given and taken with force (or a government, arguably the same thing).

It is regrettable that many personal fortunes are made by people who simply manipulate money and contribute nothing to their society.
Strongly Disagree

It’s kind of lame, but there’s nothing wrong with it.  “Manipulating money” means they are doing something – investing in a company that uses the money to increase production, loaning the money to other people so they can buy something at a cost way beyond what is feasible to save for, etc.  In general, their actions are a positive factor on the economy even if the work is deemed “easy” by some people.  Read a little about Warren Buffet’s work habits.  Nothing he did was simple or easy.

Protectionism is sometimes necessary in trade.
Agree.

Transnational free markets are kind of retarded – the relative worth of goods is not the same across all boundaries.  Plus, too much free trade encourages more exploitation than the reverse.

The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders.
Strongly Agree

It is the government’s job to define what is legal.  It is a company’s responsibility to do everything that is within the bounds of the law to make as much money as possible.  It’s called fiduciary responsibility and it’s one of the major driving forces of the economy.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t invest in companies if we suspected they were going to fritter money away on causes we may or may not agree with.  In companies with billions of extant shares, this would be catastrophic.

The rich are too highly taxed.
Strongly Agree

The top 25% earners pay 84% of the taxes.  Punishing success is no way to run a country.

Those with the ability to pay should have the right to higher standards of medical care .
Strongly Agree

Medicine is not a right, it’s a privilege.  If I can pay the best doctor in the world to spend his highly valuable time on me, I deserve his time.  If a doctor can’t charge more for his services if his reputation and skills merit such a charge, why would he bother spending his time earning that reputation and skill?  Money talks, bullshit walks.

Governments should penalise businesses that mislead the public.
Strongly Agree

See above.  Businesses must operate lawfully.  That, in my opinion, includes honest advertising.

A genuine free market requires restrictions on the ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies.
Disagree

This is kind of stupid, because free markets mean no regulations.  A genuine free market is one with no barriers of any kind.

The freer the market, the freer the people.
Agree

Freedom to trade goods and currency is central to the concept of freedom.

Abortion, when the woman’s life is not threatened, should always be illegal.
Agree

I don’t see a strong reason why adoption isn’t a valuable alternative.  In today’s cultural climate, there is no shame attached to unwed pregnancy.  Even if there is, the shame is deserved (or else it wouldn’t be shameful, right?)  I can’t say for sure whether an unborn baby is alive or dead but I’d rather not be wrong.  I lean toward alive.

All authority should be questioned.
Agree

I believe everything should be questioned.  The reason this didn’t get a strongly is because most people can ask the questions but most people are too dumb to arrive at answers.

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Agree

This is a caricature of the issue, but I believe the punishment should be equal to the crime (if not exactly the same).  Murder should merit death.

Taxpayers should not be expected to prop up any theatres or museums that cannot survive on a commercial basis.
Agree

I think that there are some people who go to museums and some who don’t.  Those who do should pay to enjoy them so those who don’t care at all about museums and won’t miss them if they were gone don’t have to.

Schools should not make classroom attendance compulsory.
Strongly Disagree

As if kids could be trusted.  I went to college.  Please.

All people have their rights, but it is better for all of us that different sorts of people should keep to their own kind.
Agree

I think you’ll find that this happens naturally anyway.  I think people are happier when they surround themselves with people like them.  They shouldn’t be forced to, though.

Good parents sometimes have to spank their children.
Strongly Agree

I was beaten occasionally as a child and if there was one thing that got me in line when I was acting up it was fear of spankings.

It’s natural for children to keep some secrets from their parents.
Agree

Everyone, even children, has some privacy.

Possessing marijuana for personal use should not be a criminal offence.
Disagree

This one is entirely emotional.  I smoked plenty of weed when I was younger, and I cannot come up with a legitimate reason that it should be any more or less legal than alchohol or tobacco.  But I knew a lot of people – young people – who took to weed.  I knew others who took to cigs.  Others who took to booze.  The kids who took to weed ended up wasting their lives.  Some of them still sit around in their bedrooms in their parents’ houses into their 20’s smoking weed all day.  I think it has a high chance of ruining lives, but again, like I said, I can’t come up with a compelling rational argument.

The prime function of schooling should be to equip the future generation to find jobs.
Agree

If you aren’t going to use your education, then what’s the point of having one?  All the people who talked about education for education’s sake ended up with really shitty jobs after they graduated and were really genuinely unhappy.  When you’re emptying portapotties for a living, you’re not thinking about how good it is to be able to quote Shakespearean sonnets.  You’re thinking, goddamn, I wish I had a better job.

People with serious inheritable disabilities should not be allowed to reproduce.
Strongly Disagree

No eugenics.  If they can manage to reproduce in spite of those disabilities, more power to them.  Should they?  That’s between them, God, and their future children.

The most important thing for children to learn is to accept discipline.
Strongly Agree

Without discipline you lack the will to accomplish anything.  If you can discipline yourself, you can achieve whatever you want.

There are no savage and civilised peoples; there are only different cultures.
Strongly Disagree

I am not a moral relativist.  I believe in certain inaliable moral truths.  Cultures that do not play by those morals are uncivilized.  I have no qualms about making that judgment.  To each his own has a place in things like ice cream flavers and breasts vs. asses, not whether honor killings are morally OK.

Those who are able to work, and refuse the opportunity, should not expect society’s support.
Strongly Agree

This one is obvious.  How can you not strongly agree with this?  If you don’t, what happens when everyone refuses the opportunity?  We’ll see how long that lasts.

When you are troubled, it’s better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.
Agree

I don’t see what this has to do with poltiics or authority, but it’s a handy way of being happier in general.

First-generation immigrants can never be fully integrated within their new country.
Agree

I’ve dealt with a large number of first gen immigrants in my social and professional life.  They can try, but they’ll never quite get there.  That’s fine, though.  I wouldn’t be able to, nor would I want, to integrate into another country’s culture were I to relocate.

What’s good for the most successful corporations is always, ultimately, good for all of us.
Agree

Almost always.  Successful companies employ lots of people and put food on a lot of tables.  As long as they achieve their success lawfully, more power to them.

No broadcasting institution, however independent its content, should receive public funding.
Strongly Agree

PBS has been a waste of money since it started.  The jury’s in on this one.  Besides, there’s no such thing.  The kind of people who would strongly disagree to this statement are the ones who staff public broadcasting services and they are probably leftist when you consider that I am rightist, ipso facto, if the staff is leftist, the broadcasting is leftist.  There is no such thing as independent content.

Our civil liberties are being excessively curbed in the name of counter-terrorism.
Agree

The Patriot Act was a step too far.

A significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system.
Strongly Disagree

Free poltiics is worth the wait.

Although the electronic age makes official surveillance easier, only wrongdoers need to be worried.
Disagree

Everyone needs to be worried.  Electornic surveillance is far too easy to abuse.  What happens when the wrongdoer is the surveiller?

The death penalty should be an option for the most serious crimes.
Strongly Agree

I have interacted with the family of the Megan of Megan’s Law socially.  The man who did that to her deserves to die.  Anyone who listens to what that man did to her, or the pain in the voices of her parents, and still thinks that Timmendequas should be spared, is the one who lacks sympathy, not me.

In a civilised society, one must always have people above to be obeyed and people below to be commanded.
Strongly Agree

That’s how civilization works.  The strong always rule the weak.  While I may wish this weren’t true, I live on Earth, and on Earth, that’s how it goes.  I don’t take it as my sacred sworn duty to correct the ills of nature.  Fighting nature on a large scale is a losing battle.  The best you can do is be true to your own beliefs and your own nature.  The second you start trying to apply your own to other people, you’ll see how futile it is.  Gee, why am I writing this again?

Abstract art that doesn’t represent anything shouldn’t be considered art at all.
Strongly Agree

Jackson Pollock is a freaking sham.  Abstract art is BS.

In criminal justice, punishment should be more important than rehabilitation.
Agree

I don’t forgive and I don’t forget.

It is a waste of time to try to rehabilitate some criminals.
Strongly Agree

Most pedophiles will never be rehabilitated.

The businessperson and the manufacturer are more important than the writer and the artist.
Strongly Agree

Money talks, bullshit walks.

Mothers may have careers, but their first duty is to be homemakers.
Agree

Somebody’s gotta raise the kids.  Women have always done it.  Women enjoy it.  Men don’t do it.  Men hate it.  What’s so hard about that?

Multinational companies are unethically exploiting the plant genetic resources of developing countries.
Disagree

What’s unethical about it?  Exploit is such a loaded word.

Making peace with the establishment is an important aspect of maturity.
Strongly Agree

Sitting around and crying about how the world isn’t exactly like you want it to be is stupid.  I didn’t make the rules.  You didn’t make the rules.  But we both live by them, so we might as well do what we can to play by them as best we can.

Astrology accurately explains many things.
Strongly Disagree

Come on, seriously?

You cannot be moral without being religious.
Disagree

I don’t think you can’t be, but I think you have a better chance of being moral if you are religious.

Charity is better than social security as a means of helping the genuinely disadvantaged.
Strongly Agree

Social security is just forced charity, and I don’t like to be forced to do anything.

Some people are naturally unlucky.
Agree

Life isn’t fair.

It is important that my child’s school instills religious values.
Disagree

Shouldn’t the schools leave something for the parents to teach?

Sex outside marriage is usually immoral.
Disagree

It’s not immoral, it’s just risky.

A same sex couple in a stable, loving relationship, should not be excluded from the possibility of child adoption.
Strongly Disagree

They should be excluded.  If nature intended two men to raise children, they would be doing so without the aid of a civilization to give them one through adoption.

Pornography, depicting consenting adults, should be legal for the adult population.
Strongly Agree

It’s one of the least harmful vices out there.

What goes on in a private bedroom between consenting adults is no business of the state.

Strongly Agree

It’s one of the least harmful vices out there.  Behind closed doors is a very powerful concept.

No one can feel naturally homosexual.
Strongly Disagree

I’m certain that homosexuals do in fact feel naturally homosexual or else they wouldn’t give up all of what they must give up to be homosexual.  Feeling is one thing.  Doing is a totally separate issue.

These days openness about sex has gone too far.

Strongly Agree

Beind closed doors is a very powerful concept.