Comments on Meme Processing: Authoritarians

What makes the Randroids really evil is that they ...

2008-01-11T16:05:00.000-06:00

What makes the Randroids really evil is that they want to create a society that not only favors utterly selfish and amoral people, but punishes anyone who tries to be considerate and decent. They want to force everyone else to be as greedy and myopic as they are by means of competition. That's my take on it anyway.

Good read seconded. I don't fit neatly into any ca...

2007-09-30T19:41:00.000-05:00

Good read seconded. I don't fit neatly into any category. I guess that makes me a misanthrope. Actually, I'm too social to be a misanthrope, so I guess I'll just keep on being me.

I was raised in three alternating settings: Manhattan suburbia, rural, and a mixed but fixed community of people from all settings showing up at the same family camp every summer. I quickly learned to take people as I found them, and nod politely no matter how bizarre I thought their world view was.

I think separating into four groups is not sufficient. Your assholes, for example, are what I would call "class A manipulators". All right, I call them assholes too, but that's less precise. One can be an asshole without the will to dominate or control. One can be a fearful, submissive asshole, refusing to think outside the box or go against the majority/authority opinion, even when it's a matter of self-preservation. Sort of lemming assholes.

You've been tagged with the evolution meme tag!

2007-09-29T14:35:00.000-05:00

You've been tagged with the evolution meme tag!

Good read. I bring this up to show that when libe...

2007-09-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

Good read.

I bring this up to show that when libertarians use words like "freedom" and "opportunity", they almost always mean it for themselves, exclusively. If they oppose power, it is only because they don't have it. Liberty is only useful if it grants them power

This is a good point. My soon-to-be brother-in-law is a good example here. He believes that corporations and the rich should basically have unlimited power over society. However, he believes in a small government whose only function is to protect the haves against the have-nots. And what type of degree is he getting? A business degree. Perhaps if he were going to become a politician his views would be in favor of a stronger state, but since money and corporate power is what he's after this becomes the moral 'good' in his outlook.

The family household may have been eccentric to some extent, maybe a single mother or starving artists for parents. Having seen authority figures abuse power or otherwise be stupid, they have the important understanding that authority is fallible, and that it is often wise to question it

This got me thinking about my own parents, who by most standards are pretty 'normal'. The only thing that strikes me as abnormal is that our church attendance was relatively low, maybe every other week rather than every week. My church attendance actually helped me it turns out, because it was clear that my family was going so that others could see us and that we were there. In this sense it got me opposed to being part of the herd (if not for the fact that I had to wake up early and put on a shirt with icky buttons on it in order to go to church). Also, I had perhaps the rather common experience that the pastor was an idiot. So he'd make a negative comment about race or about 'those damn scientists' and my faith in his infallibility quickly plummetted. In fact, I began to believe he was actually an asshole, not just wrong on a couple of issues and that he was actually being dishonest. Then I would see how all the people in the congregation still revered him, and it horrified me that they could submit to such a terrible authority. I guess this experience is part of why I question authority nowadays.