Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] An exception to the usual Bush appointee.



This would have been a much more appropriate response without the political diatribe. I think the word conservative has been appropriated by a small minority of very vocal, highly opinioned individuals who certainly do not fit my view of "conservative"

However ....... Most of the current crop of folks who call themselves "conservatives" are not even remotely conservative in the dictionary sense. Most of them would be more accurately
described as right-wing activists ... where activism is totally
inconsistent with conservatism.

The neocons in particular are not conservative at all; they
are right-wing radicals, where radicalism is an extreme form
of activism, and wildly antithetical to conservatism.


A small change in words and that would read

However ....... Most of the current crop of folks who call themselves "liberals" are not even remotely liberal in the dictionary sense. Most of them would be more accurately described as left-wing activists ... where activism is totally inconsistent with liberalism.

The neolibs in particular are not liberal at all; they
are left-wing radicals, where radicalism is an extreme form
of activism, and wildly antithetical to liberalism.

This is I believe an example of the type of polarizing statement that is destroying reasonable discourse on serious matters in our nation today. Politics, of all ilks, has become a character assasination arena rather than a place where differing ideas can be debated. To paraphrase Voltaire, I may disagree with what you say, and your stand on issues, but I would defend to the death your right to express your viewpoints in a public forum, and let the listener/reader decide with whom he/she agrees (if anyone).
We seem to be able to do this in science (in most cases) without assuming that the person that doesn't agree with me is an "apostle of darkness".
At least I hope so!
James Mackey



John Denker wrote:
On 07/31/2007 03:02 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:
BC - I'm afraid that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of
conservative philosophy.

I think we ought to cut BC (and others) some slack on this
point of terminology.

The problem is that the meaning of "conservative" has been
distorted dramatically in recent years. According to the dictionary
http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/02/index02.djvu?djvuopts&page=326
conservatism _used to_ mean primarily

"The disposition to maintain and adhere to the established
order of things; opposition to innovation and change."

This meaning is entirely consistent with the obvious etymology of the word, and consistent with the notion of "conservation"
as used in physics, and with "nature conservation", et cetera.


However ....... Most of the current crop of folks who call themselves "conservatives" are not even remotely conservative in the dictionary sense. Most of them would be more accurately
described as right-wing activists ... where activism is totally
inconsistent with conservatism.

The neocons in particular are not conservative at all; they
are right-wing radicals, where radicalism is an extreme form
of activism, and wildly antithetical to conservatism.

An example of this can be seen early in the Iraq war. The
conservative approach would have been to overthrow Saddam but
to leave the rest of the government in place as much as possible,
i.e. to "conserve" the existing institutions, and then make changes slowly if at all. However, the US took the /radical/ approach, namely to disband the army, civil service, et cetera, i.e. to change as much as possible as soon as possible.

Partisan interference with the workings of the Justice Department
is also an example of right-wing radicalism, wildly antithetical
to real conservatism.

Ditto for the appointment of right-wing activist judges. Real
conservatives would favor judicial /restraint/, not right-wing
judicial activism.

So much for the typical pseudo-conservatives. I could say more,
but you get the idea.

As bad as all that is, sometimes it gets even worse. George
Bush advertised himself as a "compassionate conservative", but
his compassion extends only as far as Scooter Libby. On the
same day that he explained why the Libby sentence was "too
harsh", his Justice Department was forcing on prosecutors
and judges revised sentencing guidelines that were MORE HARSH than the old ones, and which explicitly forbade considering
the factors that Bush used to explain the Libby commutation.

This isn't conservatism; this is radical hypocritical right-wing plutocratic activism. But they call it conservatism, so we shouldn't be surprised if people are confused about the
terminology.

_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l