@CKM: On reflection, and under the influence of my new anxiety medication, I tend to think that people on average are more naturally competitive and even progressive (in the sense of believing that competition yields technical improvement though not necessarily virtue) than various leadership castes and classes have cared to admit or indulge. So, for example, politicians (and intellectuals even more so) are notoriously self-aggrandizing even as they impose their altruistic schemes on the rest of us. The trick is finding a way to channel both instincts productively. I think democratic limited government offers the best environment for permitting the kind of experimentation conducive to a satisfactory working arrangement. In such an environment people's natural affinities can manifest themselves and attain an equilibrium with the least possible need for overt indoctrination, capitalist or otherwise. Maintaining the balance of government is the key in my view. But as I say, that could be the Bupropion talking.
@CKM: You think we had to be brainwashed as children to find virtue in competition? I relished being number one or close to it in classes and in extracurricular activities ( at least until I developed more than a touch of depression). But it never occurred to me to vote Republican until I noticed that most of the people I disliked were Democrats. I bet if I'd grown up in Texas I'd be a flaming liberal.
@CKM: On reflection, and under the influence of my new anxiety medication, I tend to think that people on average are more naturally competitive and even progressive (in the sense of believing that competition yields technical improvement though not necessarily virtue) than various leadership castes and classes have cared to admit or indulge. So, for example, politicians (and intellectuals even more so) are notoriously self-aggrandizing even as they impose their altruistic schemes on the rest of us. The trick is finding a way to channel both instincts productively. I think democratic limited government offers the best environment for permitting the kind of experimentation conducive to a satisfactory working arrangement. In such an environment people's natural affinities can manifest themselves and attain an equilibrium with the least possible need for overt indoctrination, capitalist or otherwise. Maintaining the balance of government is the key in my view. But as I say, that could be the Bupropion talking.
@CKM: You think we had to be brainwashed as children to find virtue in competition? I relished being number one or close to it in classes and in extracurricular activities ( at least until I developed more than a touch of depression). But it never occurred to me to vote Republican until I noticed that most of the people I disliked were Democrats. I bet if I'd grown up in Texas I'd be a flaming liberal.
@Rex: I am not a Social Darwinist, nor do I imagine many Darwin skeptics are, but I'm pretty sure Alcee Hastings is, along with his friends.