"Doug Winterburn" wrote in message
...
Morris Dovey wrote:
Curious Man wrote:
There seems to be a stereotype that "liberals" are the lazy sorts of
people who interrupt TV viewing only to go to soup lines, or smoke
harmful substances, whereas "conservatives" are hard working, self
reliant people who are very well off due to their own perseverance and
work ethic.

And yet, the few self proclaimed or suspected liberals and Obama
supporters of this newsgroup, seem to be very well off, accomplished
people, whereas many conservatives, while intelligent and interesting
people on many levels, are not exactly above that kind of level of
attainment.

If that is the case, is that perhaps the time to reconsider our
stereotypes?

I've always thought that "conservative" meant "not in favor of changing
some established norm"; and that "liberal" indicated a willingness to
try new approaches...

I had a seventh grade teacher who gave my class some interesting
guidance: "I don't want you to have closed minds, nor do I want you to
have open minds," he said, "I want you to have /openable/ minds - to
hold to what you know to be true, and to be prepared to replace the old
ideas when you gave good reason to /decide/ that something is more true
or works better."

Does that make one a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative?

a difference in the meaning of "equality" - equal opportunity vs equal
outcome.

As should be clear from the last half-century of debates about human rights,
that's a false dichotomy. It's another 18th-century Enlightenment conceit
that sounds good in theory, and that helps maintain the logic of (classical)
liberal thought, but it falls apart in practice.

I liked the analogy made by someone back when affirmative action was first
being discussed, around 1970 or so. He said that breaking down legal
barriers to employment opportunity was like telling someone who had been
chained up for 20 years that, now that his chains were removed, he is
expected to compete in a 100-yard dash on an equal basis. "Now, go run, and
no more complaints from you," it says.

--
Ed Huntress