Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Two Party Trap
Friedrich Hayek said:
"We are ready to accept almost any explanation of the present crisis in our civilization except one: that the present state of the world may be the result of genuine error on our own part and that the pursuit of some of our most cherished ideals has apparently produced results utterly different from those which we expected."
If you find yourself "embracing party politics," that is to say, if you label yourself as one or the other, engage in the us/them democrat/republican rhetoric, or think seriously that in the long term one is more or less injurious to the welfare of our society, you are not only missing the big picture, you are playing right into the game of the true "elite" in this country, those behind the scenes and pulling the real strings. More to the point, you are the problem with America.
Though I detest sports analogies, they can work well (providing people don't want to tangentially debate the analogy) to "dumb down" an issue to the lowest common denominator. So for the sake of only clarity and with no disparagement intended, let me suggest that the two parties need each other just like Seminoles need Gators, just like NC State needs UNC, like Ohio State needs Michigan, etc. If one of these teams disappear, then another "arch-rival" will immediately replace them.
Why? Because most people won't think critically beyond a dichotomy; they won't evaluate multiple alternatives. It's not their fault, they're just wired that way. However, I believe most of us have the ability to exceed these limitations but do not for reasons of either apathy, laziness, or a refusal to move beyond the primal urges of tribalism.
H.L. Mencken said:
"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos."
The choice of republican/democrat is, classically speaking, the horns of a dilemma, a rhetorical device that is analogous to the horns of a charging bull. It is an argument designed to put an opponent into the position of accepting either of two unpleasant choices such that accepting either is a losing proposition.
Learned and enlightened participants will realize, should they be able to rise above the aforementioned tribalism, apathy, and laziness, is that acceptance of either lemma is ultimately to find oneself "impaled" on a horn of the bull. Therefore, the only valid approach, in this case, is to step aside and reject both propositions.
Two horns on the same bull, two sides on the same coin, two alternative ways to embrace the same failed political system. Democrats want you to hate republicans. Republicans want you to hate democrats. It is through this method of codependent antagonism that their mutual survival and our perpetual disenfranchisement are assured.
Robert Higgs wrote:
"After a century of fighting a losing battle against their own governments, the American people have finally accepted that the best course open to them is simply to label their servitude as freedom and to concentrate on enjoying the creature comforts that the government still permits them to possess. They may be slaves, but they are affluent slaves, and that condition is good enough for them."
So while you are "freely" embracing one of the horns of the bull that has been purposely foisted upon you and while you are gladly accepting it as virtuous and lauding it as the solution, the path, and the way, take a look from outside the box as Goethe did.
Goethe wrote:
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Now ask yourself - how many different labels do you embrace for yourself? Christian/Jew? Democrat/Republican? Gator/Seminole? Why not climb out of the boxes the world has put you in and discover yourself? Why not get rid of labels and focus on ideas? Why not come up with your own ideas? The world is a discontinuous spectrum of all colors with lots of gray in between. To remain black or white is to miss the big picture. It's time to evolve beyond that kind of thinking.
"We are ready to accept almost any explanation of the present crisis in our civilization except one: that the present state of the world may be the result of genuine error on our own part and that the pursuit of some of our most cherished ideals has apparently produced results utterly different from those which we expected."
If you find yourself "embracing party politics," that is to say, if you label yourself as one or the other, engage in the us/them democrat/republican rhetoric, or think seriously that in the long term one is more or less injurious to the welfare of our society, you are not only missing the big picture, you are playing right into the game of the true "elite" in this country, those behind the scenes and pulling the real strings. More to the point, you are the problem with America.
Though I detest sports analogies, they can work well (providing people don't want to tangentially debate the analogy) to "dumb down" an issue to the lowest common denominator. So for the sake of only clarity and with no disparagement intended, let me suggest that the two parties need each other just like Seminoles need Gators, just like NC State needs UNC, like Ohio State needs Michigan, etc. If one of these teams disappear, then another "arch-rival" will immediately replace them.
Why? Because most people won't think critically beyond a dichotomy; they won't evaluate multiple alternatives. It's not their fault, they're just wired that way. However, I believe most of us have the ability to exceed these limitations but do not for reasons of either apathy, laziness, or a refusal to move beyond the primal urges of tribalism.
H.L. Mencken said:
"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos."
The choice of republican/democrat is, classically speaking, the horns of a dilemma, a rhetorical device that is analogous to the horns of a charging bull. It is an argument designed to put an opponent into the position of accepting either of two unpleasant choices such that accepting either is a losing proposition.
Learned and enlightened participants will realize, should they be able to rise above the aforementioned tribalism, apathy, and laziness, is that acceptance of either lemma is ultimately to find oneself "impaled" on a horn of the bull. Therefore, the only valid approach, in this case, is to step aside and reject both propositions.
Two horns on the same bull, two sides on the same coin, two alternative ways to embrace the same failed political system. Democrats want you to hate republicans. Republicans want you to hate democrats. It is through this method of codependent antagonism that their mutual survival and our perpetual disenfranchisement are assured.
Robert Higgs wrote:
"After a century of fighting a losing battle against their own governments, the American people have finally accepted that the best course open to them is simply to label their servitude as freedom and to concentrate on enjoying the creature comforts that the government still permits them to possess. They may be slaves, but they are affluent slaves, and that condition is good enough for them."
So while you are "freely" embracing one of the horns of the bull that has been purposely foisted upon you and while you are gladly accepting it as virtuous and lauding it as the solution, the path, and the way, take a look from outside the box as Goethe did.
Goethe wrote:
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Now ask yourself - how many different labels do you embrace for yourself? Christian/Jew? Democrat/Republican? Gator/Seminole? Why not climb out of the boxes the world has put you in and discover yourself? Why not get rid of labels and focus on ideas? Why not come up with your own ideas? The world is a discontinuous spectrum of all colors with lots of gray in between. To remain black or white is to miss the big picture. It's time to evolve beyond that kind of thinking.
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