quarta-feira, 26 de junho de 2013

Against classic liberalism

Opinions of people do not obey the square borders among ideologies, the vast majority of people don't even know exactly what are the main ideologies, and there is a huge variation of opinions and people usually mix ideologies depending on the subject, but this does not change the fact that there are only 3 major ideologies which are fully comprehensive systems of world view and provide very consistent policy making: conservatism, classic liberalism and leftism/marxism. There are some other sub-types, but in general, those 3 groups are enough to understand the game of power in modern democracies. So that's why in political discourse there is a tendency to simplify into the 3 biggest groups, it is a model, a simplification of reality, thought obviously imperfect.

The mixing of those 3 ideologies is always inconsistent, often leading to people being afterwards very surprised at what the people that they supported start proposing after some times. This is because after some time in power always there will be pressure to end the contradictions and make progressively more policies of the favorite ideology making an advance into a purer form of it. That's why leftism countries where the left rules after decades, like Sweden and Brazil, well, they get each time more leftist. So a classic liberal state would get each time more classic liberal.

Before proceeding I'd like to define conservatism very briefly, it is an ideology based on 2 things:
1>Tradition
2>Religion (in Christian countries this means Christianism)
And from those 2 things we get all ideas from conservatism, let me give some major examples:
a> Private property
b> Solidarity
c> Merit
d> Law and order
e> Justice
f> Honor
etc

Classic Liberalism on the other hand is based on:
1> Free market
2> Personal Freedom
Note that Christianism is not a pillar in this ideology.

It is very beautiful to speak of the free market and of the wonderful freedom, but I think that everyone here should be made very well aware of the dark side of "classic liberalism", which is the same thing as "libertarianism".

1> No moral -> abortion, gay marriage, drugs legalization

Almost all libertarian politicians in the USA are in favor of gay marriage and drugs legalization. If in Poland they are not, they are just mixing conservatism with classic liberalism, and sooner or later they will have to choose which of the 2 they believe the most, because in reality classic liberalism is in favor of legalizing drugs and gay marriage. Anything less than that is against freedom. Most libertarians are also in favor of abortion. I know that a sizable group of christian libertarians is not, but they are mixing inconsistent ideas, they are making an unprincipled exception, it makes no sense. According to pure classic liberalism there is no reason to punish abortion. Some proeminent libertarian thinkers in the USA say that indeed killing the unborn baby could be considered murder, but they propose that mother could then have him removed alive and afterwards he (for example a 4 months baby) would need to survive on his own, as the mother cannot be forced to take care of the "parasite", it would be against her "freedom"

Just read blogs of libertarians. Study what classic liberal political parties do when they get to power. Don't judge just based on what someone writes in a manifesto, they obviously write only what people want to read. It is a scam. Judge by their dids, and if they were never in power, then judge by what people that think similar to them do in other countries.

2> No solidarity, no taxes -> so no public health care, no public schools, no public universities, no public transport

I find it very funny to hear about the theoretical advantages of a classic liberal state with no public health care, no public schools, etc.

For those that are healthy and have good jobs, sure, no problem. But what about people that need very expensive treatments? How would a person earning R$600 be able to afford a interferon injection against Hepatitis C costing R$1000 each dose? Do you have 1mln zl to pay for a cancer treatment? Don't have? Well ... Before public health care people simply died in the streets. No, there was not nearly enough charity to compensate.

Ask people in the USA how they feel it is great that to start your job life with a $100.000 dollars credit to pay for the university.

3> Tradition and Religion are not pilars of classic liberalism. Are you ready to say goodbye to everything Christian in the state?
Examples:
a> Crosses in schools and other public buildings
b> Mentioning God anywhere related to the state
c> A Calendar based on the birth of Jesus.
d> A week with 7 days. The French revolution proposed a 10-day week so that it won't be christian.
e> Christian holidays

I know that libertarian politicians in Poland probably don't propose those things, but their friends in other countries do propose. Also, they cannot trully provide any argument against them as well, and it is a logical conclusion of liberalism. Be sure that classic liberalism is not against those things. And without conservatives to defend our tradition, I don't doubt we will eventually get there. The french revolution already implemented those ideas for a short time, and it had a lot in common with classic liberalism. There was already a big attempt in wikipedia for example to remove the usage of AD and BC in favor of CE and BCE  (CE stands for Current Era, not Christian Era).

4> It never, ever wins against leftism

Please someone show me 1 single instance where classic liberalism has won against leftism. Conservatism already has scarce chances, but classic liberalism is the biggest spreader of communism ever. If even in the USA, the neoliberal country by excellence, the left is winning... In my oppinion the left simply parties with joy when classic liberalism starts to gain power, because what will the poor rather believe? That they are incompetent to compete in the free market of neoliberalism and deserve to be poor (like classic liberalism says), or because they are exploited by the rich (like the left says)? Conservatism offers a middle solution for the economy, called social market economy (called "solidarity" in the polish political language), which is well proven to work well and in a stable fashion.

In Brazil the left took power exactly after a classic liberal president. Collor. He removed all import taxes, removed farming subsidies, sold most public owned companies, and .... unemployment rose to 50%, mass migration from farms to the cities creating the favelas, violence exploded because of so many poor people in the big cities, Brazil was not violent before the 80's. Well, it's not hard to understand why ever since then the poor people are voting each time more leftwards...

Wo defeated comunism in Poland? Solidarity did, and Solidarity is conservative. I haven't ever heard of classic liberals having success againt leftism.

5> They hate conservatism

I don't consider classic liberals as the biggest threat, clearly communists and politically correct liberals are the biggest threat to the western civilization. So why harshly criticize classic liberalism? Well, I think they deserve that I expose their problems because I have never seen more hate towards tradition and conservatism than among classic liberals. It's really ironic that they claim to fight against communism and then they go on to ... fight against conservatism and hide their heads when the commies appear. I am yet to see a classic liberal stand against a commie crowd. I guess they don't have courage to do it. Or they really think we are worse than communists?

So summing up that's why when it comes to politics I don't support classic liberalism, I support conservatism. And I hope that I brought to light a reality that very few people know: That putting classic liberalism is much more than just low taxes and freedom, it has dramatic negative sides as well. When you analyze closely the consequences of actual classic liberalism implemented in a society, not only its theory, well, it is not nearly that beautiful. It can stink like a person with an open wound that can't get medical care, it can be dangerous as the violence that appears in a society which ignores the poor, it can be expensive when you realize that the saved money from lower taxes does not pay a full private health care (it must include hospitals too if there is no public one!) nor does it pay for a private university and it can be shocking when you realize that AD date is against freedom and that those nice libertarian politicians just voted for drug legalization, euthanasia, abortion and gay marriage, even thought you were sure they would never do it.

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