The clearest definition of the Left is set here in black and white. The Right sees say a bridge or a building or a successful business corporation and thinks that it just happened, no one created it nor invest thought and effort in bringing it about, and anyway, if the man who built it would not have built it, somebody else sooner or later would have done it. Things just happen inevitably, spontaneously, like the grass that grows after a rain.In fact, it is clear to the Left that there is no pride nor achievement in the building of a bridge, a new road, a big corporation, and that all the human effort and work behind it is basically worthless, meaningless, basically harmful and counterproductive. The creator did not add anything to the universe, what he did was to appropriate or steal it for his own enjoyment and to the detriment of the enjoyment of the rest of humanity.
Since I work day and night designing and building factories and so, and have never seen any of them appear spontaneously, I cannot suffer that people who takes the position that they are a given of nature. The grass grows naturally, bridges and cities appear because it is in their nature to do so, great fortunes are stealing what already is there or would be there anyway. In my daily life, I meet this world view in regulators, they cannot understand the effort to build something, they feel it is there by a law of nature. New buildings and new bridges are not splendid achievements of human effort but a nuisance and violation of the existing, sacred Nature, and should not be allowed to be built at all.
The Left has a belief that there is something called "environmental justice". It is the ancient illusion that there is a fixed amount of things out there and if you have two while I have none, justice requires a rebalancing. If Bill Gates has billions and I have just enough, I feel poor and claim for justice. Dalio says that social disturbance will appear and redistribution is inevitable. Preventively, I should redistribute too.
The Left has a belief that there is something called "environmental justice". It is the ancient illusion that there is a fixed amount of things out there and if you have two while I have none, justice requires a rebalancing. If Bill Gates has billions and I have just enough, I feel poor and claim for justice. Dalio says that social disturbance will appear and redistribution is inevitable. Preventively, I should redistribute too.
You put too much value in the efforts of humans. There is very little difference between the left or the right in this regard, I think we are still at the mercy of forces beyond our control, and eventually something will happen to remind us of it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that only by building and learning can we uncover the truth, but we are nowhere close. Some degree of humility and patience is warranted, from any side of the political spectrum. Smarter leftists and smarter rightists (there is little difference between them in this regard, they both understand how little we've actually accomplished so far is.)
By smarter leftists I mean environmental primitivists like Pentti Linkola or Kaczynski. They see something wrong with our modern society and how we are not fit for it - that it is killing us.
By smarter rightists, I mean the techno-singularity crowd - the ones who think mankind will discover and invent solar sails, genetic engineering and quantum computing and sail the stars as an advanced species.
Stupid leftists and stupid rightists both overestimate the effect mankind has had on the environment and Earth.
One volcanic eruption in Indonesia releases more carbon into the atmosphere than 150 years of industrial activity. We are nothing compared to that. At least not yet.
Stupid rightists, on the other hand, feel that they are the top predator in the jungle. And they suck on their stupid cigar and feel themselves very secure. Until they die of some incurable disease or a tornado destroys their house and assets.
I think we are still very vulnerable. Some degree of humility is necessary.
Humility is always necessary, hubris kills. Yet solar sails are out there (Voyager), genetic engineering and quantum computing are facts. Humanity is moving ahead.
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