What motivates me to be a conservative?
Love.
Love of country, family, society, traditions, freedom, democracy, history and culture and a desire to retain all of these things intact for all time.
What motivates a socialist?
Hatred. Hatred for all the above and a desire to eradicate them.
Socialists don't do love - which is why any attempt to defend those things I list above are confronted by leftist arguments based on hatred.
I love my country? It's because I hate foreigners.
I love family? It's because I hate women.
I love society? It's because I hate the poor.
I love traditions? It's because I hate change.
I love freedom? It's because I hate equality.
I love democracy? it's because I hate minorities.
I love our history? It's because I hate progress.
I love our culture? It's because I hate people with a different skin colour.
None of this is true. I don't hate anybody or anything - except the prospect of losing all the things I hold dear to an idea that will destroy the things I love.
4 comments:
I can see your point and find it a trifle harsh. I prefer to think of socialism as a ideology that suits people whose fundamental motivation is 'away' from that which they don't like and conservatism an ideology that suits those whose fundamental motivation is 'towards' that which they wish to achieve/maintain.
If I am walking across a room I am walking away from the wall behind me and towards the wall in front of me - both away and towards. My personality is likely to influence whether my awareness is focused on the 'away' or the 'towards' or both in some ratio, say, 60%:40%.
I, for instance, am very motivated 'away' from the surveillance society we seem to be sleep walking into. Somebody else, whilst sharing my direction, might be motivated 'towards' individual freedom and liberty.
It's the same thing and entirely different both at the same time.
Hat tip. NLP metaprograms.
I don't think it's harsh - just accurate.
You say you're motivated away from the surveillance society - but why? Is it because you hate surveillance or because you love freedom and liberty? I don't hate surveillance - at times it is necessary (that's what we have prisons for - so we can keep wrongdoers under surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week) - but I love the freedom that law-abiding people used to have in Britain to go about their lawful business with out being watched and monitored by the state.
There are lots of things I dislike - asparagus for one - but that doesn't mean I want to eradicate them! If the left were simply motivated away from things they dislike then they would not be seeking to eradicate those things. The desire to destroy them can only be justified by hatred - not just a mild dislike.
Therefore, the left is motivated by hatred.
I haven't expressed myself very clearly. My belief is that motivation has a direction as well as a focus (love/hate?) which may be expressed on a continuum from totally 'away from' to totally 'toward'. A mid point would be 50% away from and 50% toward.
For instance, when I was working, I subscribed to a pension fund. I had discussed the ins and outs of this with my wife before joining. I was motivated almost entirely 'away from' penuary in old age and she was motivated almost entirely 'toward' enjoying our old age.
Of course I could see her point of view and she mine but but our motivation to subscribe to a pension was almost opposite in direction.
Incidently as you might expect she is by nature very proactive (toward) and I am very reactive (away from). If you want anything done ask her not me but be careful because she rarely foresees the potential downside of her proactivity. She recently ruined a nearly new tyre by driving on it flat for several miles. When I asked her if she'd noticed she had a flat tyre when driving she said she had heard a bumping noise and the steering felt a bit funny but she wanted to get home to get the supper on!
Maybe my missus and you are related, I think we should be told.
End of sermon.
LOL - I think you explained yourself well enough, w - my argument is that a dislike of something is not enough to justify the destruction of that something.
When you discussed the pension with your missus I'm sure it never entered your head that one alternative was to "destroy" old age by killing yourself the day after you retired?
My point is that it is not enough for the left to move away from something - they have to destroy the thing they are moving away from. That is the motivation of hatred - or, if not then fear. Essentially, it's the same thing.
BTW, most people who vote socialist are not motivated in the same way as those who implement leftist policies. I'm not suggesting that everyone who votes Labour is motivated by hatred - only that all those who actively engage socialist policy are.
You only have to think back to the origins of the ideology and how Marx formed the idea based on class hatred.
It's kind of ironic that once the left achieved hegemony they realised that eradicating the class system actually abolished their raison d'etre so set about entrenching class by eliminating social mobility while turning their hatred to other things (sexism, racism etc.).
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