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Liberals vs. Conservatives by PK

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
| LIBERALS VS. CONSERVATIVES |
| A NIRVANAnet(tm) Infodose written by PK |
| Distributed via the NIRVANAnet(tm) text file distribution network |
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

BK> In contemporary usage, a "liberal" wants to control every aspect of
BK> your life so you don't hurt your self, a conservative so you don't
BK> hurt others.

You've got that wrong on both ends. It's the conservatives who are in FAVOR
of people hurting others. As long as they "deserve" it, or are foreigners,
or you're doing it with money.

All of the alleged freedoms which conservatives support and liberals oppose
are the kinds of freedoms that allow you to disrupt other people's lives.
Guns, pollution, power for employers to dictate to employees, power for
parents to treat their children however they like without oversight, etc.
Liberals prefer to support the kinds of freedoms that leave other people
plenty of space. This goes along with conservatives seeing the world as a
hostile place in which aggression and belligerence are assets, while liberals
are more prone to see the world as a nurturing place that will treat us well
if that's what we give out.

But the basic political difference is something else. Conservatives believe
there is a set of rules about how society SHOULD be, and are offended when
real society fails to conform. They operate from a mental picture of the
exact form that they think society ought to take, and feel that any variation
from it is somehow WRONG. This idea is usually modeled on how things were
(or were claimed to be) when they were young. It finds expression in a
belief that ever since that golden age, everything's been going downhill,
though everything was improving before then. They find value in feelings of
guilt, because it encourages people to obey rules. Liberals believe that
there is no set of rules about the way people are supposed to act or how
society is supposed to be, but there are certain ways that people are
supposed to NOT act, and anyone with a humane heart can see what they are.
They see things as having been improving all along, to the extent that
violation of human rights and dignity is less tolerated in each generation.
They find value in empathy, because it encourages people to do no harm.

This is why the dogma believed by conservatives varies arbitrarily from one
time and culture to another, for instance being pro-enterpreneur in some
areas and anti-enterpreneur in others, pro-religious freedom in one society
and very much anti- in another, etc... but liberal ideology tends to stick to
consistent themes of humaneness. It's also why many
conservatives see the answer as being to go backwards, to reverse social
progress, though in fact that cannot be done. It is also why
conservatives place great value on following the letter of the law, while
liberals stress following concience.

Many libertarians are actually pseudo-conservatives in the sense that they
have a very narrowly defined idea of what a correct society ought to be. Many
"apolitical" middle-of-the-roaders are actually liberals in the sense that
they trust society to find its own course. When looked at this way, it
becomes no contradiction to see that in Russia, the Communists are the
conservative party.

BK> Essentially meaningless. Liberals let you be a bit freer with your
BK> mouth, conservatives with your wallet, but even that is fading.

The gap between them is currently getting wider, not narrower. Folks on
different sides of that got along a lot more smoothly a generation ago, now
it's becoming more the norm that when one is on one side, the values of the
other side are just intolerable to live with.

The difference which at first looks superficial is in fact a profound one.
The difference between being past-oriented or future-oriented, encouraging
uniformity or welcoming diversity, pessimism or optimism about human nature,
hostility or compassion as a default attitude, a future that is planned or a
future that is an unknowable adventure, I-win-you-lose or I-win-you-win,
believing in rules or believing in yourself.

... Conservatives are more religious, but liberals are closer to God.
 
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