[Mavdog]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

mavdog, it's really cute how much of a quintessentially establishment liberal you are....anyhoo.

actually you have no idea about most of my positions. nice how you use the very labeling i speak about however...

obviously, racial discrimination was not one of the "traditions" I had in mind. Why is it that establishment liberals (such as yourself) always imagine that every conservative argument is a veiled argument in favor of racism?

ah, labeling again...
just because you didn't have "racial discrimination...in mind" doesn't negate the history of its existence, nor does it remove it as one of the "traditions" of which you express such adoration.

classical liberal that I am, I would never say that our *founding fathers* bestowed upon citizens some inalienable rights -- that's anathema, in my view. surely you understand.

such rights may be ordained by a higher power, which I assume is the basis for you "anathema", however it took the efforts of our founding fathers to place them in actual practice.

I would not agree that this is "the problem today". *Liberal* or *Conservative* is a useful first order analytical construction, nothing more or less. We might likewise say that people are generally either Plato-ists or Aristotle-ists....it's just a handy way of breaking things down on a large scale, and it doesn't imply that they are beholden to some rigid orthodoxy.

then again, most would agree that there is such a thing as a *Liberal* worldview and there is such a thing as *Conservative* worldview, so it's seems useful to describe and understand the two worldviews better.

set your mind free without the shakles of trying to put everyone in a neat box. it's neither "useful" nor constuctive imho.

anyhoo -- you may note that I described conservatism as an "analytically powerful framework" and not a specific set of political/social beliefs. that is, in my view conservatism is not so much a question of what a person believes but how they go about forming their beliefs...obviously you disagree with me, perhaps because you imagine that I'm just making a thinly veiled argument for racism.

cheers

there is no uniqueness of an "analytical" ability to the varied political philosophies, nor are the political philosophies uniquely illogical either.

and no, I do not in any manner subject you or any other anarchist to a label of "racist" merely because of your political philosophy, the charge of racism is one that is earned through the very act itself.