Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] OT Thought Provoking

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] OT Thought Provoking
  • Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 17:43:04 -0600

Del Williams wrote:
> When you start bringing in issues that those on the right and left do not
> agree about, like abortion, it makes drawing those lines even more
> difficult.

Wouldn't it be the exact opposite of that? It would make the lines much
clearer. And because they are irreconcilable, there is little room for
common ground ... thus the contentiousness between the pro-abortion and
anti-abortion views. (Which is what we all called it in the 60's when people
were a little more honest about the terms).

> I noticed that the website Marc passed along is built by Roman Catholic
> priests. As political activists, priests have traditionally been very
> involved in issues (besides abortion) that are more left ward in
> philosophy.

The Catholic Church was a major part of the original Christian Church.
Christianity, as exemplified by Jesus, tends toward a more socialized
concept or some would go so far as to call it pure communism. Over the years
the spin off churches from the Catholic have tended to go away from that
concept and built a structure with much more emphasis on the individual.

Church leaders in the Catholic Church operate on a hierarchy that makes it
difficult for them to connect with real world economics. They are more
connected with the people in their parish and when they see things that seem
wrong, they are often outspoken in their own way. But this is also true of
church leaders in other religions as well. It depends upon which church got
there first (often Catholic in many third world nations), so they are often
to ones to speak out.

> Interesting reading and, to me, far more enlightening about the
> motives and
> goals of Americans than an analysis of left/right as though it is a
> dichotomy and not a continuum.

It IS a dichotomy and a form of constant tension between individuals and
within themselves if they are introspective.

Most people who are well balanced, particularly middle path people, will
have some left and some right views on different issues. Some call this a
weakness, such as has the right of center Rush Limbaugh types, and the left
of center Jim Hightower types. But that is where most of us operate from.

As you go further and further from the center, you become more extreme
(relative to the center) and if you go far enough, you are forced to employ
totalitarian concepts in order to foist your views on the unwilling
centrists. That is why Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have done well
politically even though they are democrats. They are left of center
moderates. Similarly, with moderates like the current president, who is a
right of center moderate. You simply can not get elected if you go to far
either way.

This morning the Socialist Workers Party or similar (I forget which fraction
of the socialists) was on Wis. Public Radio, strongly condemning President
Bush's policies. He did mention though that when he, the socialist
candidate, ran for the office of President of the United States, he received
almost no votes. There is a reason for that:)

Sincerely,

Rick Williams





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page