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hholdings
New Member
USA
23 Posts |
 Posted - 02/17/2009 : 10:00:44
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While some conservatives and liberals have comparable thinking patterns, one can generalize thought patterns. I would say that conservatives tend to think within the box while liberals tend to think outside the box. Assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality have very distinct different pathways that tend to define each group. Thus, they often do not understand one another and wonder how could the other think like that. As Frank Sinatra would say: "That's life."
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 12:27:01 [Permalink]
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| Funny that you mentions that, as there was a Slate article on wthe book 'The Future of Liberalism' today. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 13:57:06 [Permalink]
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 19:56:36 [Permalink]
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| While some conservatives and liberals have comparable thinking patterns, one can generalize thought patterns. |
And one would be, of course, quite wrong.
| I would say that conservatives tend to think within the box while liberals tend to think outside the box. |
And your evidence would be?
Both the left and the right are box thinkers, which is why we can put them in right and left boxes. Liberals think Big Brother can solve all our problems, and are delighted to force everyone to finance their "solutions." Conservatives think God and government can solve all our problems. They lie about their love of government, of course, but their actions show they love it just as much as the left.
When dealing with individuals there's a lot of creativity on both sides. The left tends to be more creative in the arts, the right more creative in business, but neither side has the corner on thinking outside the box.
And just what is thinking outside the box anyway? I can only think of two modern day examples: Creative Commons and Giving loans to unqualified people. Although creative commons has its roots in giving away razors to sell the blades, so it's not entirely new. And giving loans to unqualified people on a massive scale is what caused the economic meltdown we're now all going to have to live with.
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When a vampire Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door, don't invite him in. Blood Witness: http://bloodwitness.com
Get Smartenized® with the Quick Hitts blog: http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/index.phpBlog |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 22:34:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hittman
Both the left and the right are box thinkers, which is why we can put them in right and left boxes. Liberals think Big Brother can solve all our problems, and are delighted to force everyone to finance their "solutions." Conservatives think God and government can solve all our problems. They lie about their love of government, of course, but their actions show they love it just as much as the left. |
Of course! The answer to stereotyping is... more extreme stereotyping. 
Edited to add that this was a laugh riot:| And your evidence would be? |
You should turn professional. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/17/2009 : 22:47:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Of course! The answer to stereotyping is... more extreme stereotyping. |
You liberals always talk like that. Now, back in your box, Dave.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2009 : 09:01:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hittman
So you're a socialist, but would allow some people to make some of their own decisions, sometimes. |
I'm only a socialist when it comes to society-wide problems. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Mycroft
Skeptic Friend
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 00:58:51 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by hholdings
While some conservatives and liberals have comparable thinking patterns, one can generalize thought patterns. I would say that conservatives tend to think within the box while liberals tend to think outside the box. Assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality have very distinct different pathways that tend to define each group. Thus, they often do not understand one another and wonder how could the other think like that. As Frank Sinatra would say: "That's life."
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The people I know and respect who are liberals tend to be motivated by a desire to treat people with absolute fairness and respect, they are passionate about civil rights and human rights, and they have a genuine desire to see that people less fortunate than themselves are taken care of.
The people who I know and respect who are conservatives tend to be motivated by the honest belief that people produce more with less interference from government, and that people should have a right to keep most of what they produce. They believe strongly in the importance of individual responsibility, believing that people should be rewarded for their success and be held accountable for their mistakes. They believe that the free market is better than government in making decisions that shape society.
I think both ideologies are rooted in a profound desire to be moral and to do good, but often they have very different approaches on accomplishing that.
I think part of the problem in defining "liberal" and "conservative" is that people insist they're opposites of each other, but really they're not. In practice, in day-to-day discource people tend to polarize themselves on individual issues like magnets, but that's just politics. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 01:44:18 [Permalink]
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Mycroft, that's such a fair assessment, it's almost a show-stopper.
But not quite.
Myself, I am something of a center-left person by US standards. I strongly believe in using the government for the common good, including preventing hunger, creating jobs, and supporting education and health. I believe, and have for years, that the government should assure free medical care to all.
On the other hand, I would oppose the seizure of the "means of production" by the state, or setting up a "command economy." These simply don't work, compared to private enterprise, and they are invitations to institutional corruption, as existed under the Soviet system. Nothing like the Silicon Valley revolution in computer science would have been likely under a state command economy system.
My take is that ideology often gets in the way of good governance. My ideal is something like a regulated capitalism, with plenty of room for return on investment, and strong oversight by regulators to prevent financial shenanigans like the Madoff ripoff and the subprime mess, and public health dangers like the recent peanut salmonella poisonings.
Where the lines are drawn between the private sphere and the public are legitimate issues for political debate. It would help if both the left and the right were more concerned with practical results than politically pure theory.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/19/2009 01:45:33 |
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Conservatives vs. Liberals: The Paradigm
