Socialist Claptrap

Society is... Well, I don't know what society is. An agreement, a cultural construct, a gestalt of n*(n-1) interpersonal connections?

Here's what I think. Society boils down to this:

You agree to take on a little risk and forgo a little reward, and in return, everybody gets to avoid the big risks and get the big rewards.

The last twelve years of Republican political thought have made me a socialist (in some sense of the word, probably not the political party's sense of the word) by constantly reiterating their desire to break society by insisting that individuals don't have to take the little risks or give up the little rewards.

Reducing government programs in order to lower taxes, avoiding conservation, privileging short-term greed, and at every step insisting that individuals who have security owe nothing to people who do not: That's not just selfish, it's antisocial in the core sense of the word.

I'm a progressive, because I believe that things can get better and that government can help. I believe that individuals owe a duty to society and that society owes a duty to individuals, and that probably makes me a socialist.

But, mostly, those two things make me the polar opposite of Republicanism as practiced in America in the last twelve years.

Posted by Greg at January 10, 2007 9:19 AM