Your Political Influences

piedmontfields
Bringing Life to the DDBB
Posts: 2735
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 4:41 pm
Location: E Tennessee USA

Your Political Influences

Postby piedmontfields » Sat Jan 07, 2017 12:06 am

If we are to engage in civil discourse, it can be very helpful to know more about who people are and how they came to think and believe what they do.

If you are interested, please share:

-What are your assumptions about the direction of your country? What do you like and value? What do you fear?
-How do you fit into your country? Are you treated fairly? Do you have opportunities? What are your biggest obstacles?
-What is your ideal society? How did you come to this conclusion?
-What elements of your country's politics and values do you most cherish? Which bring you anguish?
-etc.

In other words, what were key insights, experiences, or understandings which led you to think the way you think?

Proceed in your own time.

boots-aregard
Herd Member
Posts: 438
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 7:47 pm
Location: San Jose, CA

Re: Your Political Influences

Postby boots-aregard » Sat Jan 07, 2017 1:49 am

I'm just glad you aren't asking from whence these things spring (as I originally thought you might be asking). I'm so old I couldn't answer _that_ question!

-What are your assumptions about the direction of your country? What do you like and value? What do you fear?

I'm an introvert, so I don't particularly "value" community, but I recognize community is how humans work best. I don't particularly care for politics either, with a small p or a large P. Not any good at it, find it annoying. But how is a community supposed to work without such wranglings? I could hope for pure reason, but I'm not going to get it.

So, I am uncomfortable in a highly political world and I would very much approve of limits on $ in politics and on time spent on politics. Give me Britain, with their 2 month election cycle and I would be a happy woman.

I was born and raised in America, so I approve of the values in the Constitution. I'd probably be OK with a parliamentary system, too. I don't particularly like us being the biggest superpower. Makes us a target as well as a leader. In that respect, I'd rather be Canada. They seem to have all the first world benefits without a lot of the Superpower downside. But they have such awful weather. (No offense. I am a "soft" Californian, I freely admit this.)

-How do you fit into your country? Are you treated fairly? Do you have opportunities? What are your biggest obstacles?

I'm white, educated, relatively innovative, and I live on a liberal coastline. I'm good. I don't care what people do behind closed doors, and I don't care what stall they choose to pee in. My biggest personal "obstacle" might be my sex, since women are not yet treated entirely fairly, but I wouldn't want to be male. I'm pretty good with earning respect. The *real* biggest obstacle I have is that I don't live in a free or equal society, and am surrounded by people who struggle so hard for the basics of life. In a large sense, we waste brains, we waste talent, we waste motivation by holding other people down. What benefits will I never receive because our society has wasted brains, talent and motivation? This question spans not just our national boundaries, but our world.

-What is your ideal society? How did you come to this conclusion?

I'm not sure what this question means. I can read the words, but I guess I don't think there is one "ideal". Society is dynamic. Can I say here that I don't think it would be "ideal" for everyone to think the same as I think? I think homogeneity is stagnating. I also think a more ideal society would have greater respect for the planetary systems we appear currently to think so little of. We are selfish, profligate creatures, and I could hope for evolution to strike us soundly in this regard. I'm chewing on this.

-What elements of your country's politics and values do you most cherish? Which bring you anguish?

First part answered above, I think. War, suffering, plague, famine, extinction <--Those bring me anguish.

In other words, what were key insights, experiences, or understandings which led you to think the way you think?

I've never been interested in money. I like HAVING money, enough money, don't get me wrong. I've been rich, I've been poor. But I've never been interested in how to hold it, grow it, finagle it, finesse it, ask for more of it. So all those games/structures/institutions that are built to the god of money or the god of power, I have no use for at all, even while I continue to function modestly somewhere in the modern world. I value functionality immensely. These personal attributes, which would appear on the surface to have little to do with politics, actually shape my values a lot. I'd *LOVE* greater efficiency in our public processes, but I recognize that delay and debate and publication and opining and all that crap leads to a better outcome while the constant grubbing for money and power sours the soup. So I have learned a type of patience.

I guess it should also be noted that I'm an open book. I'll answer just about any question asked by any person, at length, at any given time. ;) Bla de bla bla bla.

Tabby
Herd Member
Posts: 357
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 12:51 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Your Political Influences

Postby Tabby » Sat Jan 07, 2017 1:00 pm

In the old UDBB days, these questions would have started a battle. I think we're a little more civilized now. I'm also answering this as a Canadian (loved your dig by the way Boots - our weather is awful!).

piedmontfields wrote:-What are your assumptions about the direction of your country? What do you like and value? What do you fear?

When we elected Trudeau, I thought that we'd finally crawled out from the dark ages and were headed in the proper directions. I like that our politicians and scientists can speak freely. I like that we embrace diversity. I like that we are recognizing the working poor and trying to make things more equitable for them. I like that our health care is still available and still a priority. What I fear is that the rest of the world seems to have taken a turn in the opposite direction. We do not have the power to avoid being washed along with the current.
-How do you fit into your country? Are you treated fairly? Do you have opportunities? What are your biggest obstacles?
I am also white and born to a middle class Christian family so I haven't ever been oppressed. I am a woman and have hit the glass ceiling a couple of times. Though it's getting better for us, it is still there. Racism and sexism isn't as bad of an obstacle in Canada, though it does exist. Sexual orientation (LGBTQ) is no obstacle for anyone.
-What is your ideal society? How did you come to this conclusion?
My ideal society is one of peace, fairness and opportunity. I like to be able to step out my door, go where I want to without fear, be able to pursue my ambitions, have access to things I need (food, affordable housing, education and health care), and be able to share my ideas with others and be valued for them. I don't know how I came to this conclusion - I guess I've been to countries that didn't have all of these things and decided they are what I couldn't live without.

-What elements of your country's politics and values do you most cherish? Which bring you anguish?
-etc.
I cherish our health care the most and our gun control second. The temporary foreign worker program brings me the most anguish (companies end up exploiting foreign workers who are enslaved to them by virtue of their work-visa conditions and their presence results in suppressed wage or even job losses for Canadians - every single government we've had says they'll end it and they never do.

In other words, what were key insights, experiences, or understandings which led you to think the way you think?

I'm sure a lot of it is that I was raised (aka brainwashed) here and taught to think this way. I have had the great fortune to visit other countries and I even lived in the US for 3 years. That has helped shaped my views as well.

User avatar
Chisamba
Bringing Life to the DDBB
Posts: 4452
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: New Jersey

Re: Your Political Influences

Postby Chisamba » Sat Jan 07, 2017 11:21 pm

What are your assumptions about the direction of your country? What do you like and value? What do you fear?
I tend to think we are slowly improving, things that were considered okay a few generations ago, are now by the majority clearly understood to be bad ( slavery, interracial marriage) and I feel like this progress, though slow, is continuing in the correct direction. I like that i can look back and ahead and see this general improvement. What do I value, in terms of the country i live in? I value that there is law and order. I suppose that sounds like a tv show, but I like that the legal system balances out the policing system. I value that education is available and a right, through school. ( my parents had to pay for me to go to school). I value free enterprise, a functional fairly stable economic system, and obviously the right to vote is not a big one for me, since i never applied for citizenship.


-How do you fit into your country? Are you treated fairly? Do you have opportunities? What are your biggest obstacles?

I a resident alien. I arrived with very little, basically two suitcases, twenty dollars and the right to work. I needed a place to stay and a job, was able to get both fairly rapidly, and have been able to maintain life and the pursuit of happiness ever since. I can only say that is fair. I am white, although have been accused of being not white on a couple of occasions, i have also been spoken to in spanish, although i am not hispanic, and was once refused treatment by a Jewish dentist who thought i was Arabic. I suppose, especially in the summer when I have a tan, i might give the appearance of being not quite white. This is the third continent i have lived on, and I think i like it best, ( America) in my ideal word i would be able to have the best off all three worlds i have lived in, but have grown up enough to realized the goods and bads are linked to each other, its impossible to take only the good. my biggest obstacles, well to be honest I had to change careers three times because of sexism. Yes bona fide. My first two choices did not, at that time allow females in the field. Yes, i still think, even here in the USA, that there is a certain amount of difficulties a female experiences that no male ever has.

-What is your ideal society? How did you come to this conclusion? i do not believe in socialism or communism as I understand it. I thing bringing everyone to a common denominator tends to bring everyone to the lowest common denominator, to the highest. why? maybe i am still brainwashed from the cold war.
-What elements of your country's politics and values do you most cherish? Which bring you anguish?
i hate hate hate despise how long the presidential election process is. i hate how many millions are spent on it. i dislike how there are only two significant parties. I dislike how there is no sense of co operation . actually i just do not like politics. There is one thing i hate more than politics and it is the media.

the thing i dislike most about the media is the way it takes a fact. (Mr Big said its a sunny day.) and make it whatever they want it, ( Mr Big took credit for the sun coming up ) to (Mr big thinks makes the sun shine out of his) i have found that about eighty percent of the time, when i actually find the original quote, it has very little to do with the headline written about it.
This is true of supposed science studies too. ( i am being a bit satirical here) but it has been discovered that 100 percent of people getting cancer had mothers. OMG Mothers are the cause of cancer.

okay, spent too long on my peeves, lol

In other words, what were key insights, experiences, or understandings which led you to think the way you think? When i was an early teen we lost everything we owned/worked for, because of a political situation. I suppose this is ultimately fuels my desire to be able to keep that which i have worked to gain. I have lived in situations where there really was no equal or fair right to the protection of the law. It is so inherently unfair, i hope we never go back there again.

Finally, i have lived under a fairly socialized system. medical benefits social welfare etc. if some one bought a new car there was no, " oh hey, congratulations, new car: there was this accusation, who did he cheat to be able to afford a car. a farmer built a new wall for his gate, and all the locals thought he was being uppity for improving the appearance of his farm, they called him farmer gate. No celebration of each others successes, just this dour accusation if some one appeared to be doing too well. I see the beginnings of this sort of thing in the USA now and i do not like it. As you can tell, I no longer live there :)

I feel like this is not going to be of much enlightenment to anyone but who can resist answering questions when asked?


Return to “The Observation Lounge/ Cookbook Forum even Hot Topics”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 51 guests