Catma
11th August 2010, 22:32
Greetings. I'm a 25 year old on-again, off-again college student from New York. To describe my politics, I'm going to rely on the the two dimensions from political compass, namely authoritarian-libertarian and economic left-right. If these are inadequate, feel free to press me and I'll identify my positions as well as I can.
Economics is the easy one. I've always been an economic lefty. It's blatantly obvious that the rich get richer for either having money or knowing people who have money. This system has always seemed to me completely divorced from reality, and incapable of doing anything except robbing most everyone. All people are equally entitled to the benefits and output of society.
The other side of the story is more complicated. I've noticed that I am the kind of person that looks for authority. Perhaps everyone is, and some people are just better at deluding themselves into believing it exists. My journey away from authoritarianism contains three major breaks. First and most easily from my parents - it became clear very quickly that they had no idea what they were doing. Second from the catholic church. That took a little longer. I have a quaint little thought filed in my head from those days: "Imagine how great a place the world will be once everyone is Catholic!" Chortle. Currently, I range from agnostic to atheistic.
The final break was the most difficult. The relentless, omnipresent propaganda campaign on American citizens has most of us convinced that this is generally a good place, with generally good people and systems, and that the leadership knows what they're doing and intends well for us. Two wars and no WMDs later I was broken of that virulent garbage. I am honestly astonished that a) I was that naiive when I was 18, and b) people can STILL believe that crap after seeing just what I've seen, and even MORE of the same for older people who've seen worse!
I'm tired of looking for authorities now. I don't know if any exist, but I will surely try to disprove their authority before accepting any more. I hope to find a way to defeat the enormous powers striding around today without creating an even bigger monster.
I've also always had a passionate hatred for what I thought was work, and what I've lately realized is involuntary labor. I frequently wonder about what labor would look like in an ideal system, and of course what the rest of that system then looks like based on that ideal.
As far as official ideologies and tendencies go, I really have no idea. I have a lot of reading to do on both theory and history. I hope you will tolerate and perhaps even help me as I try to understand more. Thanks for your patience in reading! :)
Economics is the easy one. I've always been an economic lefty. It's blatantly obvious that the rich get richer for either having money or knowing people who have money. This system has always seemed to me completely divorced from reality, and incapable of doing anything except robbing most everyone. All people are equally entitled to the benefits and output of society.
The other side of the story is more complicated. I've noticed that I am the kind of person that looks for authority. Perhaps everyone is, and some people are just better at deluding themselves into believing it exists. My journey away from authoritarianism contains three major breaks. First and most easily from my parents - it became clear very quickly that they had no idea what they were doing. Second from the catholic church. That took a little longer. I have a quaint little thought filed in my head from those days: "Imagine how great a place the world will be once everyone is Catholic!" Chortle. Currently, I range from agnostic to atheistic.
The final break was the most difficult. The relentless, omnipresent propaganda campaign on American citizens has most of us convinced that this is generally a good place, with generally good people and systems, and that the leadership knows what they're doing and intends well for us. Two wars and no WMDs later I was broken of that virulent garbage. I am honestly astonished that a) I was that naiive when I was 18, and b) people can STILL believe that crap after seeing just what I've seen, and even MORE of the same for older people who've seen worse!
I'm tired of looking for authorities now. I don't know if any exist, but I will surely try to disprove their authority before accepting any more. I hope to find a way to defeat the enormous powers striding around today without creating an even bigger monster.
I've also always had a passionate hatred for what I thought was work, and what I've lately realized is involuntary labor. I frequently wonder about what labor would look like in an ideal system, and of course what the rest of that system then looks like based on that ideal.
As far as official ideologies and tendencies go, I really have no idea. I have a lot of reading to do on both theory and history. I hope you will tolerate and perhaps even help me as I try to understand more. Thanks for your patience in reading! :)