doone replied to Dallas the Phallus's discussion Tamar Gendler: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Politics and Economics in the group Philosophers StoneWe are a worldwide social network of freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and secular humanists.
Not sure why we need another article explaining the conservative worldview, we all know it sucks.
Conservatives and liberals have profoundly different moral views about what constitutes a just economy and society.
June 14, 2012
Authors of THE LITTLE BLUE BOOK: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic, where morally-based framing is discussed in great detail.
In his June 11, 2012 op-ed in the NY Times, Paul Krugman goes beyond economic analysis to bring up the morality and the conceptual framing that determines economic policy. He speaks of “the people the economy is supposed to serve” — “the unemployed,” and “workers”— and “the mentality that sees economic pain as somehow redeeming.”
Krugman is right to bring these matters up. Markets are not provided by nature. They are constructed — by laws, rules, and institutions. All of these have moral bases of one sort or another. Hence, all markets are moral, according to someone’s sense of morality. The only question is, Whose morality? In contemporary America, it is conservative versus progressive morality that governs forms of economic policy. The systems of morality behind economic policies need to be discussed.
Most Democrats, consciously or mostly unconsciously, use a moral view deriving from an idealized notion of nurturant parenting, a morality based on caring about their fellow citizens, and acting responsibly both for themselves and others with what President Obama has called “an ethic of excellence” — doing one’s best not just for oneself, but for one’s family, community, and country, and for the world. Government on this view has two moral missions: to protect and empower everyone equally.
The means is The Public, which provides infrastructure, public education, and regulations to maximize health, protection and justice, a sustainable environment, systems for information and transportation, and so forth. The Public is necessary for The Private, especially private enterprise, which relies on all of the above. The liberal market economy maximizes overall freedom by serving public needs: providing needed products at reasonable prices for reasonable profits, paying workers fairly and treating them well, and serving the communities to which they belong. In short, “the people the economy is supposed to serve” are ordinary citizens. This has been the basis of American democracy from the beginning.
Tags: conservatives, morality, suck, why, worldview
Permalink Reply by doone on True, but war, guns, the Bible and an aversion to paying taxes have been part of Colonial society from the beginning as well. The current group of conservatives seem to be venal ninnies but there is a good reason to be conservative about societal change in general.
Permalink Reply by Adriana on I like the Lakoff approach better than Jonathan Haidt's approach to the conservative worldview. Haidt's insistence that conservatives pay attention to more moral dimensions than liberals is beginning to get on my nerves. Some working class people vote conservative against their economic interest because they have been polarized by the propaganda machine of the current crop of conservative politicians and the corporations they serve; and that propaganda machinery uses appeals to people's worse sides, not to people's good side. They create division by appealing to tribalisms, by race-baiting, gender-baiting, homo-baiting, immigrant-baiting, etc. Oh, and atheist-baiting too.
Across the world, blue-collar voters ally themselves with the political right – even when it appears to be against their own interests. Is this because such parties often serve up a broader, more satisfying moral menu than the left?
Why on Earth would a working-class person ever vote for a conservative candidate? This question has obsessed the American left since Ronald Reagan first captured the votes of so many union members, farmers, urban Catholics and other relatively powerless people – the so-called "Reagan Democrats". Isn't the Republican party the party of big business? Don't the Democrats stand up for the little guy, and try to redistribute the wealth downwards?
Many commentators on the left have embraced some version of the duping hypothesis: the Republican party dupes people into voting against their economic interests by triggering outrage on cultural issues. "Vote for us and we'll protect the American flag!" say the Republicans. "We'll make English the official language of the United States! And most importantly, we'll prevent gay people from threatening your marriage when they … marry! Along the way we'll cut taxes on the rich, cut benefits for the poor, and allow industries to dump their waste into your drinking water, but never mind that. Only we can protect you from gay, Spanish-speaking flag-burners!" [Note from Adriana: this was actually quite funny, Dr. Haidt ]
One of the most robust findings in social psychology is that people find ways to believe whatever they want to believe. And the left really want to believe the duping hypothesis. It absolves them from blame and protects them from the need to look in the mirror or figure out what they stand for in the 21st century.
Here's a more painful but ultimately constructive diagnosis, from the point of view of moral psychology: politics at the national level is more like religion than it is like shopping. It's more about a moral vision that unifies a nation and calls it to greatness than it is about self-interest or specific policies. In most countries, the right tends to see that more clearly than the left. In America the Republicans did the hard work of drafting their moral vision in the 1970s, and Ronald Reagan was their eloquent spokesman. Patriotism, social order, strong families, personal responsibility (not government safety nets) and free enterprise. Those are values, not government programmes.
The Democrats, in contrast, have tried to win voters' hearts by promising to protect or expand programmes for elderly people, young people, students, poor people and the middle class. Vote for us and we'll use government to take care of everyone! But most Americans don't want to live in a nation based primarily on caring. That's what families are for.
One reason the left has such difficulty forging a lasting connection with voters is that the right has a built-in advantage – conservatives have a broader moral palate than the liberals (as we call leftists in the US). Think about it this way: our tongues have taste buds that are responsive to five classes of chemicals, which we perceive as sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savoury. Sweetness is generally the most appealing of the five tastes, but when it comes to a serious meal, most people want more than that.
Read the rest here.
Permalink Reply by doone on The right palate of racism, selfishness, ignorance, misogyny and fundamentalism really makes for tasty political dishes.
Permalink Reply by Michel on Is this because such parties often serve up a broader, more satisfying moral menu than the left?
Conservative morals are artery-clogging.
That's more "satisfying"?
Permalink Reply by doone on Maybe they are just not viewing reality but contort reality to fit their misconceptions about reality
Permalink Reply by Chris on Free market economics is amoral. Unfortunately conservatives believe that economics is only about money and government only gets in the way. Did the strong father in their economic model murder their nurturing mother? Looking at the conservative model of economics it appears that mother must have never left the kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom. She must not have spoken about the quality of the groceries she was buying, the education her kids were getting, or her worries about getting pregnant (again) because she can barely take care of the family as it is. Her wife and child beating, "always working" cheating ass hole husband is too busy earning his money, suppressing votes controlling the news to take care of the family.
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