I don't give a rats ass about Michael Ignatieff being out of Canada for 34 years, what I care about is his ideas on running the country. And seriously, to call a person an intellectual and to mean that as a slur, well you might as well be praising a village idiot for his ability to drool on himself.
Why is our government spending 13 million dollars to prosecute a Prime Ministerial has been like Brian Mulroney? Over what? An admitted payment of $225,000? Only in political circles could a negative return of 57,777% be considered worthwhile.
All of the major parties in Canada are bankrupt in ideas, ideals and ideology. None of them is looking out for you, they are all just looking to screw their opponents. Leading the nation is an afterthought at best.
If we as citizens elect our public officials to govern our nation only to have them spend more of their time trying to discredit the opposition or dream up new ways of spending our money on their interests then I say democracy is dead.
And what killed it? Politics without philosophy.
ALL levels of government have too much power. Government in Canada is not constrained in any shape or form. From provincial governments banning pesticides on lawns* because it's not safe for "the environment" (yet allowing the same pesticides to be used on our food). To the Federal Government stealing our tax money to prop up companies that should have been allowed to fail in the 1970's (do they seriously believe that ANYONE with more than two brain cells to rub together is going to buy a car from a company that is only being kept afloat by stolen taxes?). We, the taxpayers, the rubes that elect these dolts are paying the price.
Our governments are completely out of control. They have lost sight of the reason they were elected (to govern, not to smear) and all of them hold to the idea that they are entitled to decide how to divide up your money.
What this country needs is a properly limited government, and to achieve that we need a political party built on philosophical principals, which is not the same thing as having a political philosophy.
Politics is only one branch of philosophy and is as useless as a screen door on a submarine without the more important branches of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
The reason our political parties are so driven by partisanship is because they have no underlying rational philosophy. The reason they flip and flop is because the only thing of importance to them is getting elected, all positions, policies and proposals are pragmatic easily discarded lies the day after the election.
Ask a liberal, socialist or a conservative where he stands on the concept of rights and they will give you an equivocal answer. Give them more information and their position will change.
The rights to life, liberty and property are constrained at whim by the liberal acting for the "just society", by the socialist seeking the "greater good" or the conservative imposing standards of "morality".
This is where politics leads without philosophy to ground it.
4 comments:
Good Post. Politics without philosophy is like a feather floating in the wind, no telling where it will land. That's why a philosophical revolution is needed before any real political change is effected. That's why Objectivists when advocating a rational value like individual rights, must include both the practical and moral agruments. People will listen. If some people seem to be listening at the recent tea parties, just watch their ears perk up when things get worse which they will. Where ever people gather to protest government policy, there needs to be Objectivists there saying "Hear, read this."
Thanks Mike, welcome to Uncommon Sense. Nice Blog you have there by the way. :-)
I agree that politics without philosophy -- especially ethics -- is a problem.
By the same token, however, we have seen examples of leaders who spent far too much time devoted to philosophy to ever bother with the policy end.
It's no stretch of the imagination to agree that a healthy balance is necessary.
We've had plenty of leaders who were intellectuals and who also understood the practical realities of governing.
The problem: Michael Ignatieff is not one of them. The guy is totally out of touch.
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