A few weeks ago I joined up with a group action organization, called True Majority started by Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry’s fame. Their basic mission is to give people a venue to have some voice. They pick issues and ask the membership to act on them. In there last email they had a new Flash movie that asked the question of why we were at war with Iraq and why people who protest this action are considered by many to be trouble makers and in the worst case terrorists.
What I have found most scary about the current brand of conservitism is that the members of the group genuinely seem to believe that they are going what is best for the country (and in some cases the world). For them this seems to outstrip the selfish motivation that would make sense for most human behavior. Maybe the lead conservatives were not just pushing an conflict with Iraq so they could get fat contracts and their friends and supporters.
Who are they fighting? I guess “the terrorists” would be the stock answer. So for the moment lets consider Al Qaeda. Could you call them radical conservatives? They want to return to the Islamic world as it was back in the 14th century or so it would seem. They are against any element (such as the US) that would work against that goal. Also in a way they seem to be against most of other followers of the prophet Mohammed, because most of the Islamic countries in the world do not strive to maintain the type of environment that Al Qaeda would seem to favor.
To my view most people in the world (well at least in the US) really just want to live their lives and really not be bothered. We can debate on what this type of freedom means and the best way to implement it, but for the majority of people in a given country it would seem that as long as their happiness is maintained they would not want to aggravate the situation by trying to impress their values on other people.
Currently it would seem that it is the conservative groups of the world that are fighting each other, screaming to bring more over to their ideals. They will get more followers because their quarrel foster instability, a condition that makes people long for what the conservatives cry for, the status quo, traditional values etc. So for those of us who are not of this ilk and realize that the world situation is actually worse than now then before these bafoons came to power, could take some action and get them out of power. Why do you think the rest of the world is keeping such a close eye on the upcoming US election?
