“I’ll be as callous and uncaring as you can imagine. I have no interest in paying for your health care. I’d hate to see you get cancer, but that’s your problem, not mine.” ~ Steve Lonegan, Republican Senate Candidate New Jersey
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“I’ll be as callous and uncaring as you can imagine. I have no interest in paying for your health care. I’d hate to see you get cancer, but that’s your problem, not mine.” ~ Steve Lonegan, Republican Senate Candidate New Jersey
nicely illustrating the irreconcilable world views that divide the country. I bet he claims to be christian, too... (edited later: google claims he's a Roman Catholic) nothing says anyone's personal world-views have to be internally consistent, and there's a weird correlation between those who think everyone (else) should be self-reliant and those who hold conservative mainstream religious views. But the correlation works much more strongly one way, and I still hope for a movement among the self-aware christians to oppose those who don't follow their founder's ethics.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Sara S:
Another giver who isn't a taker. Has caused me to realize that I prefer politicians who harbor any number of judgment-impairing personal issues that bleed into public duties over those elected officials who read Ayn Rand in the bathroom. Logic dictates that the latter were literally born in a cave, raised solely by wolves, and never engaged to any degree in dependency, never even the dumbest thing like using a vending machine, which would be a sign of being dependent on others -- a whole web of interdependence that one. And somehow magically appeared in society to run for office with many backers.
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Posted in reply to the post by Sara S:
Recall the "Character Counts" backlash? It's no longer in the media? Seems like a sardonic phrase in retrospect, like the triple-entendre "trickle down."
These fun six pillars for kids in school were "T R R F C C" to peruse. Like Mad Libs:
https://charactercounts.org/sixpillars.html#
Think of an elected official, or better, something going on in a science-related field (everything); any bio/technological "advancement;" or the field of finance, and read through the colors.
As a simpleton, it's always amazed me how a secular society can proceed without an ongoing, conscious, national debate on ethics....not even a "check-in." It's an engaging, grounding topic. It has nothing to do with "being perfect;" it's just conscious living; self-affirmation; self-creativity; self-definition, and at its most basic. The many ripe to bursting opportunities, the extremes on the left and right of politics, the overarching role of technological advances and finance, remind me of how un-important any accompanying, engaging study of ethics is to our national character -- unless personal values can be learned -- as data -- for marketing/consumer purposes. Perhaps b/c faux-Christianity has hijacked the whole thing like terrorists spreading mass disinformation; or b/c an exploration of humanistic, secular ethics falls under the umbrella of "philosophy," which our anti-intellectual society perceives as an arcane endeavor instead of a gritty, daily activity, one we naturally do irregardless, whether consciously or not.
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Posted in reply to the post by podfish: