(no subject)

[chess]

I've been finding out lately that a disturbing number of you are conservatives/Tory supporters of some stripe or another. Being somewhat of a flaming red socialist myself, I'm interested in how you guys justify the belief that the rich ought to get richer and the poor ought to fend for themselves that seems to be the Tory standpoint to me...

Comments

Priorities

[lockymclean.livejournal.com]

It's late at night and I have to be up again in 5 hours, so I'm not going to wade into the evidently long arguments taking place here, and will just reply to your point.

Although I agree that it's important for people to have safety as a basic living quality, it seems to me that what we define as "safety" and why it is important is a social norm in itself. This brings me to conclude that it is necessary first to establish and maintain the most important social norms (right to life and safety of person, right to protection of property, etc.) before you can enforce them.

Various norms which you consider will have varying levels of importance attached to them: respect for God, respect for family, respect for each other, health and safety regulations, etc. So it's not so clear cut as to say that basic safety is more important than a social order, because the two will intertwine according to the level of orderliness of that society, as it progresses from chaos to anarchy through to stable government.

The difference between "centrist" and "extremist" politics seems to me to be the fundamental nature of hierarchical government (whether it exists or not, and what powers it has), and the difference between "left" and "right" in the centre is the fine-tuning of such a universally accepted hierarchical government.