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Politics beyond labels


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I think a big problem when discussing politics that go beyond right vs left is that people have different ideas about what the goal is. Are we building a utopia or 'merely' something stable?

I found the graph above to be food for thought. There are two main camps: those who believe pursuing truth leads to good and those who believe there is no universal truth and that politics necessarily is about managing disagreements about subjective truths.

  • Gandhi: Wants truth over all -- believes everyone can become enlightened
  • Plato: Wants to combine truth and order -- believes we need a gifted few to keep the rest in line
  • Hobbes: Wants referee -- believes we need a strong, impartial hand to maintain peace
  • Weber: Mix of Hobbes and Schmitt
  • Schmitt: Wants team captain -- believes people need to be lead
  • Nietzsche: Wants survival of the fittest -- believes only gifted few can contribute meaningfully to society
  • Arendt: Wants everyone to contribute -- believes pluralistic struggle is necessary

Truth, order and freedom are often in conflict. Gandhi is willing to risk disorder to gain truth, Nietzsche/Arendt are willing to risk disorder to gain freedom, Plato is willing to risk freedom to gain truth/order, Hobbes/Weber/Schmitt are willing to risk truth and freedom to gain order.

My own position can be a bit fluid so I don't exactly know where I'd put myself on that graph, but generally I'd say I'm a mix of Plato/Hobbes when cynical and more like Gandhi/Arendt when optimistic. With more of a focus on pursuing truth than managing disagreements.

last edit on 6/3/2019 6:44:45 PM
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Gandhi.

Equal rights is enough and the truth is synonymous with what's good for us. For example this so called artificial truth ( which cannot exist, but I get what it means ) will pervert and degenerate us, so I don't believe in that as something that will sustain a society very well. As a matter of fact, too much of that will collapse a civilization.

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Order is what tends to clash with Truth and Freedom, but lacking it can also make Freedom difficult to have within peaceful channels. 

I'd also say I'm largely a "Truth Seeker", even though Truth itself is paradoxical to search for beyond fleshing out one's own. 

Ę̵̚x̸͎̾i̴͚̽s̵̻͐t̷͐ͅe̷̯͠n̴̤̚t̵̻̅i̵͉̿a̴̮͊l̵͍̂ ̴̹̕D̵̤̀e̸͓͂t̵̢͂e̴͕̓c̸̗̄t̴̗̿ï̶̪v̷̲̍é̵͔
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i think you have neitschze wrong

 

it is also important to remember gandhi and plato were also politicians so they probably talked out of their asses at some points

Posts: 507
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How would you describe Nietzsche?

Also the people used serve as archetypes for different political positions, some of them can't be singularly pinned down like this like you hint at.

Posts: 738
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neitschze from what i understand hoped that with the decay of religious institution people would implement their own morals structures instead of having to rely on religion or stuff like communism etc, this was his idea of the ubermensch who would be a self sufficient spirit with no need for external institution

 

the survival of the fittest thing just came after the nazis twisted everything he said to suit their racialist aryan centeted ideology, i dont think nritschze cared for that at all, he also said that all anti semites should be shot and stuff so he was probably against it as well

 

 

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I think a big problem when discussing politics that go beyond right vs left is that people have different ideas about what the goal is. Are we building a utopia or 'merely' something stable?

 im not sure stability and human nature go together

 

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TPG said: 

the survival of the fittest thing just came after the nazis twisted everything he said to suit their racialist aryan centeted ideology, i dont think nritschze cared for that at all, he also said that all anti semites should be shot and stuff so he was probably against it as well

 Ya, he wasn't an anti-semite at all. His sister was tho. She bastardized his last book and twisted his words to meet her agenda. 

I Took The Liberty Of Fertilizing Your Caviar.
Posts: 1123
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I think truth lies within the right to liberty and self determination. Order can be achieved, at least somewhat, through the construct and evolution of laws that protect one's liberty from infringing on another's. 

I Took The Liberty Of Fertilizing Your Caviar.
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I'd like Plato, but fuck it, Hobbes way is proven.

Cheery bye!
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