First quote, check. Yeah, that is one of my favorite understands in spite of not knowing the quote, heretofore. The second quote, check. Hmm, Ah!!!! That second one says what it says and so very much more, however. One of the odd but significant parallels, or tangents, or something I realized in a micro-second explosion of insight upon reaching the period was, 'and the left believes man to be good despite their complete lack of belief in "good" for it's own sake'. Ah!!! Tons more, but that quote was like a squirrel in mid-winter finding not AN acorn, but an acorn holding warehouse. *ingesting...*
I think the paradox is that the left believes the individual is mostly bad, but the collection of individuals is usually good. The right (in crudely keeping it two-dimensional) believes that the individual is mostly good, the collection tends to be bad. Of course there are many shadings, but I think ultimately you have to lean, at least a little, in one direction or the other.
Who do you trust more, your neighbor, or the entire city?
I'm not a believer in the wisdom of crowds. The idea that individuals bad as a group can be good in a crowd is not borne out by common observation. Crowds are dangerous, short-sighted and violent. Anyone who speaks against them tend to get trampled or drowned out.
Plus, crowds are easily swayed. Get a bunch of folks together caught up in the moment and who knows what they are capable of. Just watch otherwise decent people getting swept up in a moment of violent civil disobedience or in a riot. Good? Hardly.
I trust myself, my neighbor and then only the city, in that order. On a level of threat, the exact opposite order.
To the left, the only good individuals are those of like mind. Makes it easier to identify and crush dissent in the name of conformity and/or political correctness.
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>
JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2007/11/quote-of-day_22.html (3 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
First quote, check. Yeah, that is one of my favorite understands in spite of not knowing the quote, heretofore. The second quote, check. Hmm, Ah!!!! That second one says what it says and so very much more, however. One of the odd but significant parallels, or tangents, or something I realized in a micro-second explosion of insight upon reaching the period was, 'and the left believes man to be good despite their complete lack of belief in "good" for it's own sake'. Ah!!! Tons more, but that quote was like a squirrel in mid-winter finding not AN acorn, but an acorn holding warehouse. *ingesting...*
I think the paradox is that the left believes the individual is mostly bad, but the collection of individuals is usually good. The right (in crudely keeping it two-dimensional) believes that the individual is mostly good, the collection tends to be bad. Of course there are many shadings, but I think ultimately you have to lean, at least a little, in one direction or the other.
Who do you trust more, your neighbor, or the entire city?
I'm not a believer in the wisdom of crowds. The idea that individuals bad as a group can be good in a crowd is not borne out by common observation. Crowds are dangerous, short-sighted and violent. Anyone who speaks against them tend to get trampled or drowned out.
Plus, crowds are easily swayed. Get a bunch of folks together caught up in the moment and who knows what they are capable of. Just watch otherwise decent people getting swept up in a moment of violent civil disobedience or in a riot. Good? Hardly.
I trust myself, my neighbor and then only the city, in that order. On a level of threat, the exact opposite order.
To the left, the only good individuals are those of like mind. Makes it easier to identify and crush dissent in the name of conformity and/or political correctness.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>