Andaluciae
01-11-2004, 23:47
So, here's how I came to my beliefs, how did you come to yours?
I am a college student. I attend a state school, chiefly because Columbia and Case cost a hell of a lot of money. My education is currently being payed for by a hefty corporate scholarship from the Maytag corp (they may have fired my dad, but they couldn't get rid of me!), my life savings, and my pittance of an income from some side work I do. My parents are available to back me up when my life savings run dry, but they aren't paying anything now.
During my public school years I went to what many call an elite suburban public school. My graduating class had a 98% college attendance rate. Nontheless I was an outcast from this Abercrombie and Fitch society. We'll not go into why this is, but this is typically a sign that tends to make one a liberal. Why it didn't for me, though is important. I am a firm believer in good citizenship, that people, (and for that matter businesses) can decide for their own what is good for them. An example, I am a big fan of voluntary environmentalism. I personally recycle and purchase goods that come in a biodegradable or reuseable package. I wrote an essay last year about recycling, chiefly voluntary recycling, of the five semi-finalists I was the only one who wrote of recycling in a voluntary (as opposed to a mandatory) form, and I was the one who won the $100 and the Palm Pilot.
During my early high school and middle school years I was a conservative of the most severe kind. But a combination of my friends and my teachers caused me to throw my beliefs into chaos, and I stood a beliefless vessel for a timeframe of several months. During this time frame, I explored, I read philosophers on all sorts of systems. The most influential to me was Locke, espescially the natural rights: Life, Liberty and Property.
These rights formed the basis of my new Libertarian ideology. A firm belief that the government should never trample upon these sacred rights. Another key belief is that all of these rights are equal, and that the government has no right to remove one of these from someone.
Now, this doesn't mean I am for a totally hands off society. I believe that limited taxation should occur to protect these rights from outside aggression (police, military), or to maximize our ability to enjoy these rights (education). I am an archenemy of the exterior removal of a right through inaction, part of the basis of my opposition to universal healthcare.
I believe that liberty, the only active natural right, is universal, and exists to the point where it deprives someone else of Life, Liberty or Property, this is when the police come in, to prevent or punish this disgusting deprivation.
Property is inherently passive. One can spend money to air ads for a certain candidate or belief, but the viewer still has absolute control over whether they are going to believe with that ad or not. To restrict property and to restrict liberty by restricting this is doubly wrong, precisely why I am against "campaign finance reform".
Life is inherently passive, and all have a right to it. Duh.
I believe that anything that is a result of your work, intelligence, creativity, studying, or gift receival you have an absolute right to as your property. Bill Gates would not have become a billionaire if his concept wasn't attractive to the masses. Whilst Paris Hilton may be an inheritance wench, her ancestors worked hard to make her life as easy as possible, and to deprive them of the right to do that, well it's wrong.
I also have a realist point of view. Communism, oligarchical socialism, purist capitalism, etc. cannot work, there will always be an outlier individual who will do something wrong, that is why highly limited government is needed, to protect against this outlier individual.
I believe the individual is responsible for his/her own condition. People will say this is cruel, and fun thievery but here is a good plan to get to success.
1. Attend an elementary school, preferably one which will foster a love of learning. Even if a love of learning is not fostered, a child of this age is fairly capable of making decisions for himself and able to see that if he doesn't work hard to learn the fundamentals, (reading, writing and arithmetic) he won't be able to advance to more complex things.
2. In middle school the individual is capable of full symbolic thought, psychology tells us this. The individual can improve upon these fundamentals, and learn basic more advanced shit as well. If needed the individual can go to public libraries, they are free and typically the librarians are motivated to help.
3. In high school the individual takes the skills learned previously and works their asses off. Even if your school sucks, if you work hard, and use other resources to maximize education you can get great grades, learn a lot.
With these great grades the kicker becomes involved.
4. With the great grades attained through constant hard work during high school the individual can get into a college, and even if poor, excellent grades and an inspiring life story can get you enough scholarships to cover your college costs in their entirety (even more so if you are a minority, because that appeals heavily to minority scholarships).
5. During college work your ass off once again, become the best in your area, forsooth, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. If you become in the top of your class businesses will take notice and they will recruit you.
6. In this business you work hard as hell, put in extra hours whatever it takes to get to the top. Admittedly during this time when you have reached a comfortable position, you can begin to devote time to yourself, relationships, family whatever. This is the first improvement in quality of life that occurs. Basically follow this formula up until you feel you are ready to begin the resting years of your life at which point your hard work should have you set up nicely and you can rest without worries.
This plan comes from a trust in the individuals ability to do good for themselves.
Random thoughts:
Socialism/Communism deprives individuals of the right to property.
Socialism/Communism in this deprivation is the natural environment for other right deprivations to occur. Those in charge often decide "hmm, wouldn't it be nice if there would be no racism or sexism because we don't agree with these beliefs" but this decision eventually gets to the point of "hmm, wouldn't it be nice and efficient if everyone disagrees with us, and if they don't we'll just shoot 'em." That's what happens.
The USSR, Cuba, N. Korea, Vietnam etc. are all socialist by the concept that they concentrate all property in a central government. They did the above listed thing as well. If you claim they aren't socialist, then you're wrong.
Absolute capitalism is bad because outlier individuals tend to do harm to others.
Property is an expression of the individual. An individual decides to make a company with his own property/capital and expresses his own right to make economic decisions for oneself.
There, I forgot where I was going with this post, so I'll stop rambling, if I come across any further thoughts (which I certainly will) I'll put them up too. In the meantime, you explain how you came to your beliefs and how you came to them.
I am a college student. I attend a state school, chiefly because Columbia and Case cost a hell of a lot of money. My education is currently being payed for by a hefty corporate scholarship from the Maytag corp (they may have fired my dad, but they couldn't get rid of me!), my life savings, and my pittance of an income from some side work I do. My parents are available to back me up when my life savings run dry, but they aren't paying anything now.
During my public school years I went to what many call an elite suburban public school. My graduating class had a 98% college attendance rate. Nontheless I was an outcast from this Abercrombie and Fitch society. We'll not go into why this is, but this is typically a sign that tends to make one a liberal. Why it didn't for me, though is important. I am a firm believer in good citizenship, that people, (and for that matter businesses) can decide for their own what is good for them. An example, I am a big fan of voluntary environmentalism. I personally recycle and purchase goods that come in a biodegradable or reuseable package. I wrote an essay last year about recycling, chiefly voluntary recycling, of the five semi-finalists I was the only one who wrote of recycling in a voluntary (as opposed to a mandatory) form, and I was the one who won the $100 and the Palm Pilot.
During my early high school and middle school years I was a conservative of the most severe kind. But a combination of my friends and my teachers caused me to throw my beliefs into chaos, and I stood a beliefless vessel for a timeframe of several months. During this time frame, I explored, I read philosophers on all sorts of systems. The most influential to me was Locke, espescially the natural rights: Life, Liberty and Property.
These rights formed the basis of my new Libertarian ideology. A firm belief that the government should never trample upon these sacred rights. Another key belief is that all of these rights are equal, and that the government has no right to remove one of these from someone.
Now, this doesn't mean I am for a totally hands off society. I believe that limited taxation should occur to protect these rights from outside aggression (police, military), or to maximize our ability to enjoy these rights (education). I am an archenemy of the exterior removal of a right through inaction, part of the basis of my opposition to universal healthcare.
I believe that liberty, the only active natural right, is universal, and exists to the point where it deprives someone else of Life, Liberty or Property, this is when the police come in, to prevent or punish this disgusting deprivation.
Property is inherently passive. One can spend money to air ads for a certain candidate or belief, but the viewer still has absolute control over whether they are going to believe with that ad or not. To restrict property and to restrict liberty by restricting this is doubly wrong, precisely why I am against "campaign finance reform".
Life is inherently passive, and all have a right to it. Duh.
I believe that anything that is a result of your work, intelligence, creativity, studying, or gift receival you have an absolute right to as your property. Bill Gates would not have become a billionaire if his concept wasn't attractive to the masses. Whilst Paris Hilton may be an inheritance wench, her ancestors worked hard to make her life as easy as possible, and to deprive them of the right to do that, well it's wrong.
I also have a realist point of view. Communism, oligarchical socialism, purist capitalism, etc. cannot work, there will always be an outlier individual who will do something wrong, that is why highly limited government is needed, to protect against this outlier individual.
I believe the individual is responsible for his/her own condition. People will say this is cruel, and fun thievery but here is a good plan to get to success.
1. Attend an elementary school, preferably one which will foster a love of learning. Even if a love of learning is not fostered, a child of this age is fairly capable of making decisions for himself and able to see that if he doesn't work hard to learn the fundamentals, (reading, writing and arithmetic) he won't be able to advance to more complex things.
2. In middle school the individual is capable of full symbolic thought, psychology tells us this. The individual can improve upon these fundamentals, and learn basic more advanced shit as well. If needed the individual can go to public libraries, they are free and typically the librarians are motivated to help.
3. In high school the individual takes the skills learned previously and works their asses off. Even if your school sucks, if you work hard, and use other resources to maximize education you can get great grades, learn a lot.
With these great grades the kicker becomes involved.
4. With the great grades attained through constant hard work during high school the individual can get into a college, and even if poor, excellent grades and an inspiring life story can get you enough scholarships to cover your college costs in their entirety (even more so if you are a minority, because that appeals heavily to minority scholarships).
5. During college work your ass off once again, become the best in your area, forsooth, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. If you become in the top of your class businesses will take notice and they will recruit you.
6. In this business you work hard as hell, put in extra hours whatever it takes to get to the top. Admittedly during this time when you have reached a comfortable position, you can begin to devote time to yourself, relationships, family whatever. This is the first improvement in quality of life that occurs. Basically follow this formula up until you feel you are ready to begin the resting years of your life at which point your hard work should have you set up nicely and you can rest without worries.
This plan comes from a trust in the individuals ability to do good for themselves.
Random thoughts:
Socialism/Communism deprives individuals of the right to property.
Socialism/Communism in this deprivation is the natural environment for other right deprivations to occur. Those in charge often decide "hmm, wouldn't it be nice if there would be no racism or sexism because we don't agree with these beliefs" but this decision eventually gets to the point of "hmm, wouldn't it be nice and efficient if everyone disagrees with us, and if they don't we'll just shoot 'em." That's what happens.
The USSR, Cuba, N. Korea, Vietnam etc. are all socialist by the concept that they concentrate all property in a central government. They did the above listed thing as well. If you claim they aren't socialist, then you're wrong.
Absolute capitalism is bad because outlier individuals tend to do harm to others.
Property is an expression of the individual. An individual decides to make a company with his own property/capital and expresses his own right to make economic decisions for oneself.
There, I forgot where I was going with this post, so I'll stop rambling, if I come across any further thoughts (which I certainly will) I'll put them up too. In the meantime, you explain how you came to your beliefs and how you came to them.