A land surveyor requires several valid points of reference in order to graph a plot of ground. A single point will not do. The same is needed in charting the validity of an idea, a single position will not do.
Most thinking, especially political thinking, does not graph itself from various positions. It does not back up in order to gain an inductive understanding, nor do does it move forward to obtain a deductive foundation. It just stands still with a kind of linear conclusion derived without an axiom as a constant frame of reference. Conservatives and liberals commit the same error only from different positions. Neither moves.
The democrat too often says, "Let’s make all beehives the same, and let us make sure the pollen is shared equally by every bee." The conservative says, "Let free enterprise exist between every bee. He who gets the most deserves the most by virtue of his hard work." Both the liberal democrat and the conservative republican fail to see that it is not the bee that survives the hive, but it is the hive that survives the world.
The bees are equal and do not compete within the hive, and yet the hives are not equal, for they compete with every other hive for nature’s pollen. Free enterprise is between hives and not between bees. In this the bee is personally and socially responsible. This makes every bee a cut above the republican and democrat. Bees do not take a position outside their closed system, or a position in favor of the individual. They do the best they can in an unequal world and they treat every fellow worker as an equal. Neither the republican nor the democrat thinks in these terms.
The liberal wants to take away the enterprise between markets, and the conservative wants to enlarge enterprise between individuals. Both are wrong because both are irresponsible and live in a state of denial because of their own guilt. The liberal is guilty for a lack of personal responsibility, and the conservative is guilty for a lack of social-responsibility. The only position of thought viable is one that moves and assumes responsibility for both.
Liberal democrats avoid most every form of personal responsibility. Their idealistic attachment to big global solutions is due to a personal humanitarian failure at home; they can’t solve community concerns without sacrifice on their part and so they speak in platitudes that allow them to believe, "I am a good person." All this just to hide their failure with personal responsibility.
On the other hand, the conservative republican runs from social responsibility. He may believe in family values, but those on the other side of the tracks are nature’s freaks that he did nothing to foster. Conservative republicans focus on real values to hide their failure with social responsibility. They make national values of freedom and opportunity localized to the individual. This protects them from having to assume any concern for those without.
A third eye is rising, one that incorporates both individual agency and social responsibility. It is called the decentralization movement. This platform on Steemit is part of that movement. Others will surface soon enough. A renaissance is coming.
I really like this point of view. We discussed it in class as well and I think it makes some really great points on both sides of the political spectrum. I also think it only deals in extremes. These points of view are only the extreme ends of the political sides. I think that it is a valid argument except that not everyone is this extreme on either end.
-Ashlee
It is interesting to see it from the bee point of view. If we were like bees we would all work together for our hive or whatever we are working for but, we are all looking out for ourselves and compete with one another. The class discussion was interesting because it made us see what some don't see or notice. instead of competeing with one another we should work together to lift each other up.
-Leslie Garcia