DiscoGary wrote:
OK, while the drunk hecklers in the cheap seats continue to prove my initial point was correct, I need to get around to the promised first principles a person should base their values and world views on.
I won't bore you with Natural Law, but a detailed analysis of this philosophy can be found there.
Basically, everything is based on human nature, and until human nature changes our first principles will not change. Now keep in mind that genetic engineering is moving rapidly, and we may have a new form of human being soon, so we have to keep an open mind about this, but right now this is where we are.
Human Nature:
1. Life: People don't want to be hurt by others.
2. Liberty: People don't want to be enslaved by others, they want to be free to do what they want as long as they don't hurt others.
3. Property: People want to keep the fruit of their labors. (Man, I HATE that phrase, but that's the standard way of saying it)
That is a Law of Nature (a Law of Physics on the football field) meaning that if you try to violate any of those, people get hurt. This is the foundation of your world view, and until we build a new type of human, can NEVER be changed by passing new rules or demonizing other people. You will notice that this is based on the individual, not groups of people.
From that we immediately get a Rule Book (Constitution) based on our world view:
A just government helps the individual protect their rights to:
1. Life
2. Liberty
3. Property
Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
Anything more is an abuse of power.
SHAZAYAM!!! It turns out that our Constitution looks exactly like this theoretical rule book! Pure luck? No, because it was created by people who understood human nature and did their best to create a form of government that would protect individual rights.
When people ask "What would YOU do to fix our problems?!", my answer is "How about we start by obeying our own rule book, the Constitution?", because violating the Constitution ultimately means violating one of the three foundational Laws of Human Nature, which means people will get hurt, and that's either a dereliction of duty, or an abuse of power.
A full political philosophy in 3 posts.
Does that make sense?