We talked about Chomsky tonight in AP language. It was really interesting, because before I've only had limited knowledge of him (not that my knowledge is that much more extensive after a two-hour talk).
I think maybe I agree with his critique of media in democracy. We also talked in class about how the US is becoming steadily more conservative and that only republicans and democrats are really in the political focus at the moment when there are in actuality so many more political parties. That drives me crazy; how in the world can everyone fit into two catagories?!
We decided that because the US is becoming more conservative, the only end in sight is when it becomes a totalitarian regime, like fascist or something, and it's obvious that the media is simply false propaganda, and there is a revolution to put us back to a more balanced state.
I guess I agreed with all of that, except you couldn't really call me entirely liberal. My economic ideals are extremely liberal. I believe in socialism. I think we should share everything; there shouldn't be private property, and all the products of everyone's work should be distributed amongst everyone. Yes, even those that don't work as hard. I believe everyone, even illegal immigrants, should get healthcare, education, and other human rights on the UNDHR. Socialism and universal rights would eliminate a lot of unfair stratification, in my opinion. We should share. :-) So I guess you could say I'm way left economically.
However, I am the opposite of a libertarian; I am way liberal economically, mostly conservative socially. I believe gay people should get all of the political financial benefits of a married couple, but that the institution of marriage needs to remain a man and woman thing. I don't believe in abortion. I'm religious, so I think morals should take a huge place in political decisions. Killing someone is never okay. Personal responsibility is important.
I thought it was a very interesting discussion though. I think I'm going to look more into this Chomsky fellow.
[sidenote- today I got my third flat tire in three weeks. I had to walk to math class. I was twenty minutes late. Then I had to walk back to school. It's not that far, probably 1-2 miles round-trip, but it was weird walking about during the middle of the day.]
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"What I realized suddenly was that the true failure would have been if I hadn't given a damn. You can bandage a wound, set a broken bone, but not caring...you can't cure that and you can't recover from it."
"What I realized suddenly was that the true failure would have been if I hadn't given a damn. You can bandage a wound, set a broken bone, but not caring...you can't cure that and you can't recover from it."
About Me
- Lindsay
- Everything in my life is about to change, and I'm absolutely terrified. I breathe one instant at a time.
2 comments:
Would you work as hard as you do in school if you knew that you would never be graded. What if your debate competitions never had a winner...there were no win/loss records...everyone just debated. Would you try as hard?
How would you make you feel if everyone that applied for MIT got in? What would that do to the prestidge of graduating from MIT?
It's the same thing with capitalism vs socalism. If there was no competition, our economic performance as a country (which is doing amazing right now) would be destroyed....
Do you really want to conform to the status quo?
yes, i would work as hard at school. yes, i would work as hard at debate. i don't do it for the win/loss record, and i don't do it for the grade. i do it because i love learning and i love debating. i really wish schools didn't give grades, but rather comments.
i want to got to MIT because of the amazing school. i guess the prestige would probably make me feel pretty good about myself, but in my defense that's definitely not the reason i am applying there. i'm not applying to any ivy league schools because i'm not really concerned about that.
i think that capitalism is only necessary for people that are motivated by competition. competition is one of my motivators, but it's not my only motivator and it's not my main motivator. i think a society could work in the absence of competition. i would work hard because i like to work, not because of the material results.
i can conform materially to the status quo without conforming mentally.
i do agree with you, though, that america as it is now relies on capitalism for the economic system, and i do think that the performance would probably be hurt a lot. but i think in the long run things would be better, and more fair.
i think you're right that it would hurt some things, but i think that it would be a more just system.
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