Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00274)

LunarPitri:

><< Your views of liberal and conservative are much different from mine.  My
> idea of a liberal is someone who believes that people in government are so
> good, and people who are not in government are so helpless without people
> in government, that big government is necessary to help people not in
> government get by.  My idea of a conservative is someone who believes that
> the most important issue in politics is that, since power so easily
> corrupts, no one has too much power, preferring as decentralized and
> limited a government as possible.  >>
>
>I have a hard time figuring out who wrote who to whom, but whoever wrote the
>above passage, I say right on. A nicely expressed view of conservatism.

I like the quote too. It seems to make a balanced attempt at showing the
two viewpoints, rather than comparing the best of one view to the worst
of the other. It's usually possible to tell when someone is angry or
defensive in their writing, because a strong personal bias will show.
Other writings may show a more balanced, philosophical, easy-going approach.

We put a little bit of ourselves into our writings, and that includes any
inner turmoil going on. I've found it best to wait out my anger, when
responding to something offensive, so that it's me, and not my anger writing.

I wonder how much of the discussion of politics that we've seen on theos-l
is really related to a search for truth, and how much comes from a ritual
belittling of people with other views? This is customary in the press and
in general company, perhaps, but I might hope we'd be a bit more insightful
in theosophical circles.

One thing from the quote above seems slightly funny. According to the
definition, a theosophical liberal is someone who believes that people
in theosophical office are so good, and people who are not in theosophical
office are so helpless without them, that big government is necessary to
help them get by. And a theosophical conserative is someone who believes
that the most important issue in theosophical politics is that, since
power so easily corrupts, no one has too much power, preferring as
decentralized and limited a government as possible.

-- Eldon