23 Jun 2020 3:14 pm
By ericb:
Back on this forum after a 6yr absence and noted this thread. I've thought quite a lot about this topic over the years, even putting together a short book on the subject. My definitions of liberal and conservative are pretty short and general, which I think makes them a good guide when a new issue comes up. (See below.) What do you think? Essentially, almost everyone values fairness, empathy, social stability, and economic freedom. What differentiates us is the emphasis we place on those things.
My theory is that political liberals value fairness and empathy more than they value social stability and economic freedom, while social conservatives most value social stability and economic conservatives value the kind of economic freedom that benefits businesses. (Strict ideologies like libertarianism and Marxism don't rely on values so much as doctrine, so are outside my four-value system.) These values are heavily influenced by the culture we've grown up in, as opposed to being derived from rational thought. (Yes, I know that statement offends almost everyone.) Of course, no one is completely consistent.
An often-heard equivalent to fairness and empathy is "justice tempered with mercy." Taking a quick example: the goals of our legal system are justice and order, which often conflict. LIberals opt for justice, social conservatives for order, and economic conservatives for whatever benefits themselves, lol.
Back on this forum after a 6yr absence and noted this thread. I've thought quite a lot about this topic over the years, even putting together a short book on the subject. My definitions of liberal and conservative are pretty short and general, which I think makes them a good guide when a new issue comes up. (See below.) What do you think? Essentially, almost everyone values fairness, empathy, social stability, and economic freedom. What differentiates us is the emphasis we place on those things.
My theory is that political liberals value fairness and empathy more than they value social stability and economic freedom, while social conservatives most value social stability and economic conservatives value the kind of economic freedom that benefits businesses. (Strict ideologies like libertarianism and Marxism don't rely on values so much as doctrine, so are outside my four-value system.) These values are heavily influenced by the culture we've grown up in, as opposed to being derived from rational thought. (Yes, I know that statement offends almost everyone.) Of course, no one is completely consistent.
An often-heard equivalent to fairness and empathy is "justice tempered with mercy." Taking a quick example: the goals of our legal system are justice and order, which often conflict. LIberals opt for justice, social conservatives for order, and economic conservatives for whatever benefits themselves, lol.