Actually, there have been interesting tests that show genetic predisposition. e.g. The visual reaction tests (discussed a few times in this forum.) The experiment has a series of visual images silently shown to a viewer. Meanwhile, the moisture level on the person's hands is measured. (I think they measure heart rate also.) Disturbing images (big spider on someone's face, or Gary Busey's face without a spider) cause some people to have automatic physiological reactions, while other people don't have those reactions. There is a strong correlation of political leaning to the responses. Conservative voters tend to have stronger physical reactions to the disturbing images. I don't have a judgment about that. It's just interesting. Fear is good and useful (as an evolutionary advantage... if you allow yourself to study evolution, that is.) And you even see fear used and referenced more often on one side of the aisle, I would submit.
But, to the question, my blather above doesn't make sense for me. Spiders FREAK me out, badly, but I lean to the left on many issues. I think I view politics the way I do because I believe this notion strongly: nearly any project worth pursuing takes more than one human generation. I can't put it any simpler than that. I think the more an individual separates him or herself from other people, the less healthy the individual will be, for one, and the less healthy a community and our species will be, for another. That's not to say I think socialism is a good model for a healthy economy. Capitalism can be, in some ways, a very social animal. But when it leads to people in gated communities who vote for their own monetary interests above most everything else... yeah, that seems negative to me.
As a teenager, I think my contrariness pushed me in two directions -- economically socialist as a rebellion against the culture at large, and socially conservative as a rebellion against my immediate peer group. I have probably used my experiences since then to shore up those positions. Elite college, marrying a christian, posting here, working in energy, going to b-school -- all somehow reinforced a liberal economic and a conservative social political ideology, when most people would expect the opposite effect.
I think people are very influenced by the folks they grow up with... parents, relatives, close friends of parents, relatives, and grow up to either have similar views, or quite different views, depending on how they see their experience growing up. Those who had a pretty groovy childhood (sort of lower middle class Leave it to Beaver in my case, until Dad moved up enough at the university to really bump up our standard of living) and are around progressive people tend to be progressive themselves. Those who grow up in a groovy household around conservative people tend to be rather conservative themselves, and those who have bad experiences growing up tend to do the opposite of whatever their people did. That's my theory, anyway.
I came from a liberal very devout Catholic family. My parents were essentially Christian socialists who liked Dorothy Day and believed in civil rights and helping the less fortunate. My mom told me: "Your father and I are so liberal we are almost socialists". It was sort of the opposite of present day conservatism/ libertarianism, the virtue of selfishness, survival of the fittest, I've got mine Jack, and idolatry of one Market Under God, as espoused by biz schools and propagandists of the right. I remember like Deckard being very excited by the Kennedy-Nixon debate and stayed up very late for my age watching the election returns. As Catholics we were very especially excited by Kennedy.
My sweetie's uncle is a Catholic priest, but very conservative. Until we went to visit him in Philadelphia I wondered where all the liberal priests had gone, thinking of those great films from the 1930's, with Pat O'Brien playing the groovy liberal priest fighting the establishment. There they were! The uncle was living with a bunch of other priests next to a church (he's semi-retired) and they were all very liberal. It was great! :-D As for Kennedy, it really is one of those things that you had to live through to really "get."
I think the first time I was interested in politics was high school. Our teacher took a vote in the class for the Presidential election and it was overwhelmingly in favor of the Republican. Then the teacher asked the class why they voted that way and nobody had a decent answer. It all seemed like a popularity contest and that's basically what it is unfortunately. The candidate with the best ideas doesn't win and that surprised me. After that I began to realize that people were more interested in ideology than doing the right thing by the people or the country. Then I could kind of tell people's ideology by certain characteristics. Any time I run into a single white guy he turns out to be a Republican 9 out of 10 times. Then you begin to see in society that single white men are less encumbered by obstacles in society so it makes sense that they think they're in control of everything and that everything is fair and everyone has an equal chance. They're not blocked by institutional racism, sexism, or poverty and they not blocked by pitfalls like teen pregnancy. If you believe that people are motivated by pure self interest then why wouldn't young white men be conservative Republicans? In general, I see Republicans as looking at what's best for themselves and not what's best for society. Unfortunately they've gone off the rails on this Reagan rant about the evils of government and it's killing the country. I consider myself a lot more practical on issues than Republicans and Democrats. They both seem to get mired in ideological positions that don't contribute to solving any problems. Both sides have all the answers but no solutions, it's annoying.
Sure you do. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IOybSMl1TmA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IOybSMl1TmA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Good discussion but you guys are fooled by your politics, any politics. There is no politics in this world.
So how does this natural pessismism cause you to have such relative lot of trust that big corporations will take care of you?
Because of my father's career, my childhood was spent growing up in different cities around the world every 2-4 years. The constant change, and seeing different cultures, religions, and people yet eventual awareness that all human beings have a shared belief in family, love, and happiness led me to become an independent who believes the idea of a nation-state is obsolete and that both American parties and the rest of the world are governed under increasing corporatocracy. I worked for the Texas Legislature in college as well as the State Department. Then, a law firm followed by a major investment bank, and finally a public policy think tank allowed for me to see the whole shebang, from ridiculously-rich party donors to sleazy lobbyists. Worship of the almighty dollar is the only religion I saw in the above, and I met few people who actually stood for something. This led me to seek spirituality from various world faiths and relate them to Islam as well as my education in the liberal arts and natural sciences. Lastly, I force myself to socialize with people from different groups like secularist/atheist graduate students to engineers starting their own firms. Interacting with many people helps to keep an open-mind.
Well, the question was about politics, not how I feel about corporations. Besides, I feel it's government's greed, self-interested policies and lax regulations that enables corporations to destructively satisfy their greed. So I barely even see the distinction at this point, except that the government is more far-reaching and definitive, and thus a greater concern in my opinion. For what it's worth I do favor strong, rigid regulation by the government that favors stability. Pretty much the only type of intervention that I strongly support, and probably the most ignored and disregarded. Why do you trust the government more than corporations?
I believe what I believe because, over the course of my life and my career, I've constantly seen how the government ****s people over for their own good. It seems to me like too many people look to governments for solutions to their problems; ignorant to the fact that governments never create anything -- they only squander their people's wealth with schemes designed to benefit their corporate friends. But that isn't all. Throughout history, governments have been a voice for the intolerant. How many times throughout history have ignorant politicians used the power of the state to suppress the non-violent actions of others in the name of their subjective moral fiber?
Politicians should be honest. Once I believe someone is lying I turn them off. Lying to me can be: withholding some facts twisting facts assuming facts deceiving misleading cheating exageration with the intent to mislead
