The gf has lassoed me into a discussion night with two other couples. We're going to dinner, watch some controversial video (politics or religion for sure) at a lecture hall, then off to drinks and the discussion. Well, I'm not certain what the others' politics are, but I do know they're all born and raised Canadians. Thus, I predict they'll lean left. So, to head off a boring, nitpicking debate about whether Marx validly supported his premises that the proletariat could self-govern until the next historical phase was reached, I plan to take a polar opposite position so that we just fight over the basics. I could use some succinct, conservative core values to keep in mind so that I can make solid arguments on the fly and remain my annoying self. Some values, and I'll present them as balances, (on the belief that only the mad espouse one value to the exclusion of all others), are: 1) Individual responsibility is, on balance, more important than group or institutional responsibility. 2) Individual freedom is, on balance, more important than group or institutionally created rules. Can you add any?
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LOL ! Sounds like a great time in the making, and I hope you enjoy. My two cents (or is a Beaver nickle more appropriate ?) would be: 1) Government should ensure equal rights and stay out of the equality of condition business. 2) The beauty of the US constitution is that it acknowledges that the unalienable rights endowed to man come not from government or man, but from man's creator.
All other rights flow from property rights. There is no right to anything that others have to subsidize. An armed society is a safe, polite society. The problem with urban education is cultural not financial. Throw those lines out, fill in the blanks and with any luck you'll probably never have to endure this type of evening again. ps. I am assuming none of these people have any power over you or your gf's career, academic life, etc because liberals treat people with dissenting opinions as normal people treat cockroaches on the kitchen floor.
Lol! Bugscoe, you and I disagree on everything, except this! Well done. It would be, I have to admit, my first six-way. I think they call that an orgy?
Actually, the beauty of The United States Constitution stems from the fact that it does not do that which you claim. - Spydertrader
Great clips, thank you. Re the first clip, is there some internal contradiction in that republicanism, rule by law, is dependent upon democracy, rule by the majority, to establish the laws?
Here's a conservative core value for you: lemon socialism. Privatize corporate profits, socialize corporate losses. Isn't that what Bush's financial bailout was all about? Some corporations are "too big to fail". Here's another conservative core value: any regulation of corporations is bad corporate regulation. You could do a whole hour on these themes.
I'm a bit disappointed that one of my leftist brethren would do this, in this thread. Perhaps I'm too often sarcastic and my premise was not taken seriously. Anyway, I love to use new tools in the ring, so I think for tonight I'm gonna fight with the concepts from unretired's video clips. Not that they are the final answer for anything, but I'm bound to learn from on the job training. Besides, I feel I've spent enough time for now with the plutocracy angle. But for later: plutocracy... simply one form of oligarchy?