I have never gone in for thinking I am better than anybody. I am different from you and everybody, not better and no worse. Comparison always seemed to invoke distress in those who do because it implies someone is better than you.
But I know some people thrive on the comparison. Some people are glad they aren't sleeping on a park bench tonight. Some people are just glad they aren't black.
Seriously? You think you are better than someone because of genetic coincidence? Yet I know some people think its true. We've waged wars on people because they are a different race and we've even waged wars to say we are all equal too. Yet some people think they can still tell other people what to do because of the genetic coincidence that they were born male instead of female. Some people think its valid to ridicule others because of their looks, especially women.
I think this is the rational behind so many poor white people voting GOP. They know black people and 'women' vote democrat, they also 'know' rich people are the best people (they're elite) in the world because television told them, hence the party of the rich, the GOP, is the party that best represents them because one day these poor white people living in their trailer homes will be rich too, presumably because they'll have bought the winning ticket in some lottery. Hence voting republican means you are better than democrat, by this 'logic'.
I think that this stems from the hierarchy mentality that men tend to thrive in and this is why women fall to the bottom of the heap. Men need to be better than someone and hence they are better than the generic woman and then there is the need to stick together, our (adoptive) tribe must win.
In spite of the general incompetence of the GOP and their inability to grasp concepts such as how complex economic systems work makes me doubt a political system where dullards are allowed to have a significant say in how a country like the US is run. The GOP's sophistication boils down to the ability to chant out sound bites and make them sound plausible without any testing any of their theories. A classic example of this is 'corporations are more efficient than government' and 'private enterprise are the job creators'. Both statements are false but serve as truth because sometimes fundemental truth can be expressed as simply as E = mc2, which we're told is true, but belies how much thinking went into the formulation so adopting the authoritative air of a scientist, politicians can emulate by pronouncing statements with authoritative voices if the statements are repeated sufficiently often.
Another one is the idea that people build corporations from the ground up themselves. When to me that obviously excludes one vital piece of the system, customers. Customers who have enough money to purchase whatever it is they're selling. No one makes a corporation by themselves. Customers, the availability of stuff that can be resold by your corporation, a stable environment both economic and a population that doesn't ransack your corporation, a stable relationship with other countries... many of these other components are the result of management by government.
Starving people of retirement, welfare, pensions etc will eventually make your corporation suffer because your customers won't have money to spend in your corporation. Starving the county of funds will stop police being able to control crime and there will be no prison...
They also don't understand that forcing women to have kids they don't want will cause kids to be abused/neglected and will cost the community much more in controlling the violence by putting them in jail and finally executing them when the abused kids anger finally causes them to kill someone. Instead they say give the kids up for adoption, but many kids are already in the foster care system and again, the conservatives want to starve the funding of the foster care system of funding and deny the poor food stamps because its government spending. So they force women to have kids they don't want and then make sure the kids will have utterly miserable lives by letting them starve to death. This is totally inhumane and in the process will destroy lives. But they don't see this. They use colorful language like murder and babies and try to turn you into a villain for suggesting the woman has a right to choose.
Social systems are complex but people tend to ignore the complexity. Mostly the education system is failing us in that these guys are getting daddy to buy their way through college, see W and Romney (who was disappointingly stupid - its insulting to the US that people this stupid should be able to run for president). I also blame television because it distorts reality and these people are able to live in their echo chambers.
I can see the allure of keeping the population stupid, it allows people to be easily controlled and herded like cattle, for awhile. Eventually your industries will suffer because you will have to import all your thinkers and your executives. This may also work in the short term, draining the brains of friendly nations that educate their populations but as more and more americans spread the word of libertarianism to friendly nations, the friendly nations will increasingly adopt your stupid policies and stop educating their populations.
This may be too complex to understand but not educating your people will in the end in the death of your civilization. It is our brains that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom (yes we evolved, and we can prove it) and we need to keep feeding our brain otherwise we'll kill each other out of boredom.Bread and circuses will only work for so long. And while America is on top now, it got to the top with good education and whether it stays on top is another matter altogether. A good lesson in history would be very advantageous.
But I know some people thrive on the comparison. Some people are glad they aren't sleeping on a park bench tonight. Some people are just glad they aren't black.
Seriously? You think you are better than someone because of genetic coincidence? Yet I know some people think its true. We've waged wars on people because they are a different race and we've even waged wars to say we are all equal too. Yet some people think they can still tell other people what to do because of the genetic coincidence that they were born male instead of female. Some people think its valid to ridicule others because of their looks, especially women.
I think this is the rational behind so many poor white people voting GOP. They know black people and 'women' vote democrat, they also 'know' rich people are the best people (they're elite) in the world because television told them, hence the party of the rich, the GOP, is the party that best represents them because one day these poor white people living in their trailer homes will be rich too, presumably because they'll have bought the winning ticket in some lottery. Hence voting republican means you are better than democrat, by this 'logic'.
I think that this stems from the hierarchy mentality that men tend to thrive in and this is why women fall to the bottom of the heap. Men need to be better than someone and hence they are better than the generic woman and then there is the need to stick together, our (adoptive) tribe must win.
In spite of the general incompetence of the GOP and their inability to grasp concepts such as how complex economic systems work makes me doubt a political system where dullards are allowed to have a significant say in how a country like the US is run. The GOP's sophistication boils down to the ability to chant out sound bites and make them sound plausible without any testing any of their theories. A classic example of this is 'corporations are more efficient than government' and 'private enterprise are the job creators'. Both statements are false but serve as truth because sometimes fundemental truth can be expressed as simply as E = mc2, which we're told is true, but belies how much thinking went into the formulation so adopting the authoritative air of a scientist, politicians can emulate by pronouncing statements with authoritative voices if the statements are repeated sufficiently often.
Another one is the idea that people build corporations from the ground up themselves. When to me that obviously excludes one vital piece of the system, customers. Customers who have enough money to purchase whatever it is they're selling. No one makes a corporation by themselves. Customers, the availability of stuff that can be resold by your corporation, a stable environment both economic and a population that doesn't ransack your corporation, a stable relationship with other countries... many of these other components are the result of management by government.
Starving people of retirement, welfare, pensions etc will eventually make your corporation suffer because your customers won't have money to spend in your corporation. Starving the county of funds will stop police being able to control crime and there will be no prison...
They also don't understand that forcing women to have kids they don't want will cause kids to be abused/neglected and will cost the community much more in controlling the violence by putting them in jail and finally executing them when the abused kids anger finally causes them to kill someone. Instead they say give the kids up for adoption, but many kids are already in the foster care system and again, the conservatives want to starve the funding of the foster care system of funding and deny the poor food stamps because its government spending. So they force women to have kids they don't want and then make sure the kids will have utterly miserable lives by letting them starve to death. This is totally inhumane and in the process will destroy lives. But they don't see this. They use colorful language like murder and babies and try to turn you into a villain for suggesting the woman has a right to choose.
Social systems are complex but people tend to ignore the complexity. Mostly the education system is failing us in that these guys are getting daddy to buy their way through college, see W and Romney (who was disappointingly stupid - its insulting to the US that people this stupid should be able to run for president). I also blame television because it distorts reality and these people are able to live in their echo chambers.
I can see the allure of keeping the population stupid, it allows people to be easily controlled and herded like cattle, for awhile. Eventually your industries will suffer because you will have to import all your thinkers and your executives. This may also work in the short term, draining the brains of friendly nations that educate their populations but as more and more americans spread the word of libertarianism to friendly nations, the friendly nations will increasingly adopt your stupid policies and stop educating their populations.
This may be too complex to understand but not educating your people will in the end in the death of your civilization. It is our brains that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom (yes we evolved, and we can prove it) and we need to keep feeding our brain otherwise we'll kill each other out of boredom.Bread and circuses will only work for so long. And while America is on top now, it got to the top with good education and whether it stays on top is another matter altogether. A good lesson in history would be very advantageous.
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