Monday 14 January 2008

"None of the above"

Gus van Horn explains why using a political quiz to choose your presidential candidate is nonsensical, and concludes it's the same reason the choice of candidates is always so poor:

The philosophical ideas that presently have the greatest currency in our culture wrongly circumscribe the terms of the political debate and consistently produce unacceptable candidates for public office.
You can't vote your way out of such a mess. You have to work so that the public will eventually make it possible to begin digging itself out -- by spreading better philosophical ideas. This means working to understand these ideas, arguing for them, and supporting those who do.

I couldn't agree more.  The change Van Horn and I know is necessary is not the sort of "change" Obama and Clinton wield as "exuberant but insubstantial" campaign platitudes; it's the sort of change that leaves a revolution inside people's heads.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

PC, just ever so slightly off the subject, but I had to share this with you - just saw a CNN piece on speed cameras on Euro snow slopes -there is talk of imposing speed limits!

so skiers, enjoy it while you can....

p.s do you have a 'various'(like this one) comment box?

Eric Crampton said...

Unrelated to this post, but Peter, you MUST go to Ezra Levant's blog here. Check the whole series. He's the editor of the Western Standard who published the Mohammed cartoons a couple of years ago. He's now being hauled to the Alberta Human Rights commission for having done so. His opening statement is a thing of beauty. He videotaped the mandated interview with the Human Rights Commission, is posting segments to YouTube. The one at the link above, where he argues that the state has no authority to have him answer to it -- beautiful.
Notable quotes:
"You're a thug, your whole company is a thug."
"I don't grant you the right to judge whether or not I'm reasonable."