need help with a political stance
Sep. 20th, 2010 02:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quarrelI need help identifying the following political stances and/or philosophies.
Disclaimer: Any one of these may or may not be mine.
The invisible hand is not only a safe, stable and fair market regulator, it is better at all three of these things than any federal economic policy can be. Nationwide economic policies are simply too broad, for one. They create far too many poor or even counterproductive results due to their one-size-fits-all nature failing to fit anywhere near "all". Economics is also too complex a field for any human (yet) to produce better than random results trying to influence it. Third, most economic situations don't even need regulation in the first place. For instance, the current recession was caused by regulations and wouldn't have happened without them, and monopolies do not need to be broken up since they are not and cannot be either total or permanent. There is always a fringe market encroaching on their edges and always an eventual innovator that breaks their hold.
You may believe anything you want, for any reason, and it's all equally legitimate. The U.S.A.'s founding fathers fought to ensure that you'd have that freedom, and they did it on purpose because they recognized that the alternative involved having some agency that approved or rejected beliefs, and there is no tenable way to achieve that.
For example, it is perfectly legitimate to believe the capital of Pennsylvania to be Philadelphia. (It's not.) I'm not talking about making that your best guess in a trivia game, I mean honestly believing it, even holding it as such a deep-seated religious conviction that you refuse to confirm it in reference material despite knowing such material exists. Your reason could be because it's the only Pennsylvania city you've ever heard of, or because you believe states and their capitals always share their first letters, or any other reason, including pure whim. All are equally valid. None make your opinion illegitimate. Your opinion can be wrong, but that's irrelevant here.
A corollary to this is that there is no reason for you to justify any of your beliefs or opinions in any way at any time. You don't need to justify them to yourself because, as just mentioned, you do not need reasons to believe things. You don't need to justify them to other people unless you care what other people think of you, which you shouldn't because it doesn't matter. After all, they, like you, are allowed to think anything they want (and you shouldn't care or try to stop them), but if they actually attempt to act in a hostile fashion against you, you are allowed to defend yourself, including involving law enforcement where appropriate.
On top of that, if you're attempting to give some kind of logical basis for a belief, don't bother. Logic was made to handle absolutes. It cannot properly support conclusions based on observation, research, or personal experience because those activities produce only perceptions of reality. Perceptions are not absolutes. Unless your belief involves pure mathematics, logic can't justify it.
Certifications, titles, fame, public station -- these all tell you nothing about how well some guy you've never heard of understands a given topic. Your personal opinion on any subject carries at least as much weight, if not more, than anyone else's until that person demonstrates superior expertise and reliability.
So form your own opinions about everything and act on them without reservation. If they're wrong and you're smart, you'll discover they're wrong soon enough and change your mind. If they're wrong and you're stupid, you'll stick with your wrong beliefs, suffer for it -- perhaps without even knowing it -- and deserve it. Either way, the outcome is appropriate and proper. Do not worry about being wrong and leading others astray. Whether they believe you is their own wholly voluntary choice. If they trust your erroneous lead and get hurt, they need to act like the grown-ups they are and accept that the resulting hardship was their fault.
Disclaimer: Any one of these may or may not be mine.
The invisible hand is not only a safe, stable and fair market regulator, it is better at all three of these things than any federal economic policy can be. Nationwide economic policies are simply too broad, for one. They create far too many poor or even counterproductive results due to their one-size-fits-all nature failing to fit anywhere near "all". Economics is also too complex a field for any human (yet) to produce better than random results trying to influence it. Third, most economic situations don't even need regulation in the first place. For instance, the current recession was caused by regulations and wouldn't have happened without them, and monopolies do not need to be broken up since they are not and cannot be either total or permanent. There is always a fringe market encroaching on their edges and always an eventual innovator that breaks their hold.
You may believe anything you want, for any reason, and it's all equally legitimate. The U.S.A.'s founding fathers fought to ensure that you'd have that freedom, and they did it on purpose because they recognized that the alternative involved having some agency that approved or rejected beliefs, and there is no tenable way to achieve that.
For example, it is perfectly legitimate to believe the capital of Pennsylvania to be Philadelphia. (It's not.) I'm not talking about making that your best guess in a trivia game, I mean honestly believing it, even holding it as such a deep-seated religious conviction that you refuse to confirm it in reference material despite knowing such material exists. Your reason could be because it's the only Pennsylvania city you've ever heard of, or because you believe states and their capitals always share their first letters, or any other reason, including pure whim. All are equally valid. None make your opinion illegitimate. Your opinion can be wrong, but that's irrelevant here.
A corollary to this is that there is no reason for you to justify any of your beliefs or opinions in any way at any time. You don't need to justify them to yourself because, as just mentioned, you do not need reasons to believe things. You don't need to justify them to other people unless you care what other people think of you, which you shouldn't because it doesn't matter. After all, they, like you, are allowed to think anything they want (and you shouldn't care or try to stop them), but if they actually attempt to act in a hostile fashion against you, you are allowed to defend yourself, including involving law enforcement where appropriate.
On top of that, if you're attempting to give some kind of logical basis for a belief, don't bother. Logic was made to handle absolutes. It cannot properly support conclusions based on observation, research, or personal experience because those activities produce only perceptions of reality. Perceptions are not absolutes. Unless your belief involves pure mathematics, logic can't justify it.
Certifications, titles, fame, public station -- these all tell you nothing about how well some guy you've never heard of understands a given topic. Your personal opinion on any subject carries at least as much weight, if not more, than anyone else's until that person demonstrates superior expertise and reliability.
So form your own opinions about everything and act on them without reservation. If they're wrong and you're smart, you'll discover they're wrong soon enough and change your mind. If they're wrong and you're stupid, you'll stick with your wrong beliefs, suffer for it -- perhaps without even knowing it -- and deserve it. Either way, the outcome is appropriate and proper. Do not worry about being wrong and leading others astray. Whether they believe you is their own wholly voluntary choice. If they trust your erroneous lead and get hurt, they need to act like the grown-ups they are and accept that the resulting hardship was their fault.
