World views
July 31, 2009
I was thinking today, while reading some of my daily-read blogs, that both liberals and conservatives hold self-contradicting views of humanity.
As a conservative, I very much believe in the basic intelligence and capability of the individual – that, left to his* own devices, the individual citizen will make good choices more often than not, and will create a pretty good life for himself, his family and, when added to the basically good choices of other citizens, for the country and world as a whole. But I also feel there are restrictions that need to be in place to hold back some of the spectacularly bad choices people are capable of making. What’s more, as a Christian, I believe people’s natural tendency is to make choices that lead them away from God, and it takes active effort to counter that and move towards Him and be good.
Liberals, meanwhile, seem to believe that we all need to be told what choices are good for us by our betters (the liberals themselves, of course). See cap-and-tax… er, trade, as well as other nanny-state provisions such as the proposed soda taxes, people being banned from smoking in their own homes or cars – I don’t smoke, and I absolutely hate the smell of it, and would love to have a tobacco-free world, but telling someone he can’t smoke in his own home? – and all the rest. At the same time, we’re told that everything’s relative, just because it’s right for you doesn’t mean it’s right me, it’s intolerant of us to try to hold someone to a common standard.
I think I’ll have to contemplate this for a while, see if I can’t clarify how either of these views could be at all right.
* Or ‘her’, ladies; I use ‘his’ & ‘him’ because I’m a guy and only want to write one word for that. Get your own blog and exclusively use ‘her’ & ‘hers’ if you’d like. No skin off my nose.
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