I will soon excerpt the final essay from Systems out of Balance on The Middle Class Forum. I write in the book that the middle class is both the victim and the villain for how misinformation has hurt us. I also claim that we now need to be the vanguard for restoring balance to our social systems. This entry makes an appeal to conservatives, based on one of their own ideals, to accept this challenge for change. The next entry will make a similar appeal to liberals.
Conservatives and libertarians tend to overlap in their criticisms of government. If government just got out of the way our social systems would take care of themselves, thank you. OK. But how does government get out of our way? And even if government does “get out of our way” does that mean we will behave responsibly in the absence of government intervention.
Responsibility is an important ideal for conservatives, and I could not agree with them more. In our prehistoric days it was our own responsibility to migrate and adapt to different environments throughout the globe. No other species (or government) was going to do our adapting for us. Taking responsibility for our own lives is only natural; only culture and paternal forms of governance can usurp that.
What drives me crazy is when I hear a conservative bemoan that government needs to get off our backs and the only solution proposed is to “throw da bums out of office.” Whatever type of democratic government we have is ultimately our responsibility as citizens, not the responsibility of authoritarians. Here is an important litmus test for you conservatives.
Are you indeed a champion of being responsible? Fine. Then that means you start first and foremost with your own life. Are you for term limits? I sure hope so. When elected public service provides the basis for careers we are relinquishing our own responsibility to keep up with our own good governance to those who are “serving” primarily in their own self-interest. OK. So you support term limits. Have you voted for the same incumbent more than three times? If the answer to that question is “Yes,” you are a hypocrit.
Sorry, I don’t care how well some incumbent’s positions jives with your own. You either think there is a problem with our political system that term limits addresses or you don’t. You can’t fix a system by perpetuating it. And make no mistake, it is OUR responsibility to stop perpetuating it. We can’t expect the same politicians feeding off of the political gravy trough to pull away on their own accord.
Do not let the dogmatic beliefs of a particular ideology, or desire for earmarked appropriations, get in the way of our own responsibility to make the important changes needed for restoring balance to our systems. Stop this self-defeating blame game and start displaying some of the responsibility you champion. The excerpts for “Restoring Balance” provide some suggestions for what WE can do to improve our systems.
OK, liberals, you are next.
Tags: Federated Wisdom
