Thursday, December 15, 2005

What the Hell, I'm Feeling Partisan: George Will, in full Manichean mode, on modern liberalism:
The unending argument in political philosophy concerns constantly adjusting society's balance between freedom and equality. The primary goal of collectivism -- of socialism in Europe and contemporary liberalism in America -- is to enlarge governmental supervision of individuals' lives. This is done in the name of equality.


People are to be conscripted into one large cohort, everyone equal (although not equal in status or power to the governing class) in their status as wards of a self-aggrandizing government. Government says the constant enlargement of its supervising power is necessary for the equitable or efficient allocation of scarce resources.

That's very nicely put. The rest of the piece is pretty good, too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to watch a cowbird sit on the back of a cow and say, what's really interesting is that there's so many flys around here.

George Will takes a favorite viewpoint devoid of actual context or meaning and creates a whole 'nother world that doesn't exist.

I'm sure it does for him and other scholars. But for me, I'd like to talk about the cow that he's standing on. The Alaskan Oil goes to Japan....the only country that it helps as a resource is Japan. The only people that it helps is Alaskans, and those making money off of Japan. Now the Japanese also bought up a load of timber and submerged it, whole under water to preserve it from the Pacific Northwest just in case they needed some, since they don't have a lot where they come from. There are some obvious implications here, such as no one is looking out for you America, in fact they are stealing from and robbing you blind of your natural resources, but hey since the people that run this country are monied internationals....why not steal from the dumb malaysians, er I mean Amerikans, since they'd do it from us......

My comment is only about the fact that what appears to be a political or us against them story is actually, an "I have an opinion that shows how deeply I can delve into not seeing the obvious." The other thing going on you would think with as much horse power as Will is displaying he'd actually use it to get someplace besides remarking on the obvious quanity of methane...........

Flyer said...

Sorry, that's just asinine. Oil is a global commodity and any increase in supply, no matter where it's sold, encourages a reduction in prices for everyone. And it's hard to believe that what benefits Alaskans doesn't also benefit other Americans.