Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Left, right, and wrong

One of the things that has amazed me, over the past two years that I've been blogging, is how many people are willing to label me as a "liberal" or a "conservative" and to castigate me when I deviate from their idea of what a "liberal" or "conservative" is. I call bullshit. To be blunt: there's left, there's right, there's liberal, there's conservative, and they're all bullshit.

What's real is real. What's right is right. Real isn't liberal or conservative. Right isn't liberal or conservative. God is not a conservative -- or a liberal. God simply is. Reality isn't liberal or conservative. Reality simply is.

This champanzee instinct of dividing the world into "us" and "them" and then hooting and hollering and throwing feces at "them" is sick. The goal of public discourse should not be to score "points" on the "other side" in service of some ideological bullshit. The goal of public discourse should be to figure out what to do about problems that face us all. The goal of politics should not be to rule according to some idiotic ideology even if said idotic ideology ends up with people needlessly dying. The goal of politics should be to do what's right for the people who elected you.

I suppose if I have any ideology it could be called "Populist". That is, I believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people. I believe that the role of government is to serve the people who elect it, not some frozen ideology put forth by insane fanatics of left or right. I believe that We the People, not some unelected elite, should detirmine who our leaders should be, and that public policy should serve We the People, not some unelected elite. The moment we start playing chimpanzee and start throwing out all these abstract bullshit ideological categories like "liberal" and "conservative", we're not part of the solution -- we're part of the problem. Anybody who views himself as being "left wing" or "right wing" is actually just part of the "wrong wing". The only "wing" I belong to is the American wing -- that wing of politics that says, forget all that bullshit, let's do what's right for America and Americans.

- Badtux the American Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 9/27/2005 12:39:00 PM

Comments:

Well, your philosophy sounds like Communism to me. In theory sounds great but in reality it doesn't work.
I'm a believer in every reaction there's an equal and opposite reaction;therefore, there's a left and right side to every issue. I believe God is the judge. You just better pray your on the right side of God's Judgement or Wrath.
# posted by Barnvette : 27/9/05 7:55 PM

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
# posted by Barnvette : 27/9/05 8:06 PM

Oooh! I have my own troll! Stuck on stupid, as usual. Quick, Mr. Troll, identify the author of these words:

"We, the People of the United States, in order to establish a more perfect union..."

Karl Marx? Joseph Stalin? George Meaney? BZZT! Wrongo! Thomas Jefferson, in the preamble of the Constitution of the United States.

Quick, Mr. Troll, identify the author of these words: "... we here highly resolve ... that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Joseph Stalin? Eugene Debs? Gus Hall? Err, no. Abraham Lincoln.

It's shocking, but not surprising, that you would consider Jefferson and Lincoln to be Communists. They envisioned a government of the people, by the people, for the people, a government which was a servant of the people and not vice-versa. They envisioned an American government which strived to do right for America and Americans, not an American government which cared more about ideology and bullshit points scoring than about doing what's right.

Reality simply is. Reality doesn't have sides. There is no "left-wing" reality or "right-wing" reality. Reality is that when you drop a bowling ball on your foot, you will hurt. There aren't any "sides" to this... the bowling ball falls irregardless of "left" or "right". Right is right, and wrong is wrong. There is no "left-wing" or "right-wing" to Lincoln's denunciation of slavery as immoral and inherently un-American. He was stating a simple moral fact.

So why, then, do we continue to insist on idiotic ideologies that divide the world into "left" and "right"? That's simple: It's because we're monkeys. That's right. We're monkeys, with too-big brains and delusions of grandeur. And we have monkey instincts, one of which is to divide the world into "our" tribe and "other", where "other" is to be hated and despised and treated with hooting and howling and feces-throwing. Only if you realize that you are a monkey can you then begin to approach penguin zen, and discard all the hooting and howling and flinging of feces in favor of penguin clarity of vision.

- Badtux the Clear-eyed Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 27/9/05 9:03 PM

I knew there was a reason we blog-rolled you. Nice to see a little "post-ideological" action.
# posted by jayinbmore : 28/9/05 6:04 AM

"penguin Zen"... Me likey the sound of that. I would like to take the time to say, sir, that you are an excellent blogger and a moralist in stride with many an American's private thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Penguin, and Bravo!

P.S. Down with monkeys! To Mars by 2020!
# posted by liberal Christian : 28/9/05 9:05 AM

I always love the "communism has failed" mantra. I wonder if people will still be saying this when our kids are learning chinese to compete.

Besides populism is more akin to what they have in the semi-socialist countries. We are told to make fun of them for their high taxes. We are told they are doomed to fail. And their education, healthcare and the standard of living slowly improve beyond ours.
# posted by NewsBlog 5000 : 29/9/05 4:34 AM

Finally, someone who "gets it".

(thanks for dropping by the Liberaltopia, BTW) You REALLY should be on your own domain with WordPress though. blogspoot sucks.
# posted by Political Pulpit : 1/10/05 11:18 AM

Honor Roll

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"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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