Sunday, October 11, 2015

A good read: Prager

(October 11, 2015)
Prager often has 'the right of it' ... referring to "Right" as "Correct", not Conservative.

But focusing on rightist vs leftist views, Prager still manages to drill down through the issues to touch on the basic differences between one mind-set and another.

I won't ask you to RTWT, because I often shy away from these encouragements.
But I did. And here's the "teaser" lead-in:

"The third reason for the left-right divide on guns is that the two sides ask different questions when formulating social policies. The right tends to ask, “Does it do good?” The left is more likely to ask, “Does it feel good?”"

Here are the opening paragraphs, just to give you a taste:

Why does the left focus on more gun control laws, and why doesn’t the right? One reason is quintessentially American. Most Americans believe that it is their right — and even their duty — to own guns for self-protection. Unique among major democratic and industrialized nations, Americans have traditionally believed in relying on the state as little as possible. The right carries on this tradition, while the left believes in relying on the state as much possible — including, just to name a few areas, education, health care and personal protection.
 A second reason for the left-right divide is that the left is uncomfortable with blaming people for bad actions. The right, on the other hand, is far more inclined to blame people for their bad actions. Thus, liberals generally blame racism and poverty for violent crimes committed by poor blacks and Hispanics, while conservatives blame the criminals. Likewise, during the Cold War the left regarded nuclear weapons as the enemy while conservatives saw Communist regimes that possessed nuclear weapons as the enemy. It was the arms, not the values of those in possession of the arms, that troubled the left. The third reason for the left-right divide on guns is that the two sides ask different questions when formulating social policies. The right tends to ask, “Does it do good?” The left is more likely to ask, “Does it feel good?”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, emotions and feel good warm fuzzy usually trumps cold hard facts and logic when it comes to American politics. Hillary makes folks feel good about themselves.