I find that saying rather misleading. I have always been a Marxist since first reading politics, and I oppose liberalism in every essence.

I became a conservative after I realized that in life we fool ourselves.
I sat one day looking at my dog, now this cute thing was laying beside
me, while I was petting it, and it looked so cozy, and comfortable, because
I provided everything my dog needed, and I thought just how vulnerable
she would be if she had to live out in the wild, I thought, she would not make
it because she had lost the ability to provide for herself.

Well, this also led me to look at man kind, and how civilization has done
the same to us. If there is something we don't know how to do, we can
just hire it done. if I don't know how to grow my own food, I can hire it
done for me, right in the grocery store. if I don't know how to fix my
car, I can hire it done etc.

Then I thought about what would happen if for some reason, our civilization
was just riped out from under us all, how many of us would survive?

This is why I am against government providing for me. I want to keep my
ability to get and plan for my own future, and to choose the quality of that
future. I don't want it dictated to me.

Also, I believe in helping others out, but I don't believe in helping others to
be helpless them self.


The freedom to keep my own ability's just sounds to good to give up.


...

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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

A view of human nature is the fundamental basis for all true political beliefs. People gradually gain insights in to human nature as they grow up. This process occurs when people's belief in human nature predicts a certain person's actions in a certain circumstance, and they turn out to be wrong. The main reason why people get more conservative as they get older is because they have more of these experiences and thus gain a more accurate view of human nature.

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"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

--Murray Rothbard

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinny. A liberal is just a libertarian who hasn't studied economics.

i dont know

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I was simply willed into being by those in need of my awesomeness.-Tresha
Religion don't belong in politics. What happen to separate church and state?- Lopettaa
Hockey is more than just a game, It's an event - Peter Forsberg
I am living my dream right now. I get to make music -Ville Valo
Human rights are praised more than ever and violated as much as ever -Anna Lindh
I don't have respect for the people that made the decisions to go on with war -Avril Lavigne

My first strong views started to developed as I entered college as a political science/economics double major. I was strongly influenced by the ideas of Locke and natural rights and held very pro conservative/free market viewpoints. It wasn't until a couple years down the road when I took a philosophy major that I learned an important fact... That no theory ever created by man is without exception. The most inspiring quote in my life was said by Socrates: True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing (slightly adapted for my signature). I began to develop a healthy skepticism.

In this light, I began to view my beliefs about individual rights and capitalism more critically. One person in particular helped to shape my views from this day forward... her name is Melanie. Melanie was and still is a working mom taking care of her autistic son. It's the story of her son that was truly eye opening to me.

For years, Melanie and her husband had been working with doctors to treat their son for his autism. His form of autism prevented him from speaking. 10 years old, and he hadn't spoken since he was 3. When he was 10, and about the time when I first met Melanie, she decided to try something a little different... She went to the Nevada clinic where the doctors there practice homeopathic and herbal medicine. Within one month of treatment, he spoke. Just one word with great effort.... but slowly over the course of several months, his vocabulary began to develop. And this is no second hand story. I met the boy and have seen him both before and after the treatment.

This one incident opened up my eyes to the fact that the self interested desire to make money (in this case, on the part of mainstream medicine) is not always in line with efficiency and the public good. I began to understand that the noble consideration of capitalism to reward everyone for their fair contributions forgets that we are human with human evils, human limitations and human needs. Capitalism is a theory that requires many perfections in order to work... perfect morality, perfect information, perfect competition, perfectly free from barriers to movement, perfectly isolated transactions free from externalities, perfect opportunity, and perfect assumption of responsibility for public goods. I understand that in our less than optimal world, the lack of these perfections tends to benefit those on the top and restrict those on the bottom and/or hurt everyone equally. I've developed an understanding for the need of government regulation and intervention to look after all parties for the sake of lessening the impact of our suboptimal human condition.

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True knowledge exists in being aware of what you don't know.

It's coming through a hole in the air;
From those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
That this ain't exactly real ...
Or it's real ... but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
From the sirens night and day,
From the fires of the homeless,
From the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
On a visionary flood of alcohol;
From the staggering account
Of the sermon on the Mount
(Which I don't pretend to understand at all).
It's coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay;
From the brave, the bold, the battered heart
Of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street;
The holy places where the races meet;
From the homicidal (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)in'
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray;
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on,
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need,
Past the Reefs of Greed,
Through the Squalls of Hate.
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first --
The cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
And the machinery for change,
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
And it's here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
The river's going to weep,
And the mountain's going to shout "Amen!"
It's coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway,
Imperial, mysterious,
In amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean.
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right:
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
That Time cannot decay.
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
This little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

* * * * *

Leonard Cohen is what inspired me to be interested in politics.

I think this hits the nail on the head.
I was raised in a strongly Democrat family. If you even mentioned the Republicans by name you were ran off the property. In my late teens I started moving towards the Repubs. Now I lean towards the Constitutionalists and the Libertarians. There wasn't a noticeable shift that I can remember, or a specific event that caused it. As I grew older and (hopefully) wiser, my perspectives changed.

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I agree that as we grow older our experience and understanding of human nature and our perspectives change. But I'm the exact opposite - the older and wiser I get and the more experienced with human nature I become, the more liberal I feel. Perhaps its out of despair and a certain amount of disgust over what I see in human nature. I would far rather beat `em than join `em.

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We've got rules and maps and guns in our backs, but we still can't just behave ourselves. Even if to save our own lives, we are a brutal kind. The Shins

Reading comprehension is a skill we should all endeavor to gain.

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Agreed. When will you start learning said skill?