TruthSeeker
Senior Member
- Nov 26, 2008
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As always with human affairs, moderation probably does the best for the largest number of people. That is, meritocracy tempered wth a healthy counterbalance of communitarianism. That is at the heart of the tradeoff in the US Constitution between "democratic" power in the form of majorities making laws to benefit a particular majority or plurality of the moment, offset by individual rights as protected by the first 10 Amendments. Of course, since I was born in Virginia and attended 1 thru 12 years Virginia public schools, I am thoroughly marinated in the "glory" of the Jefferson-Madison construction of a legal system to nurture both the common good and individual freedom. I went to an elementary school named after Patrik "give me liberty or give me death" Henry and to a high school named for James Madison, the primary wordsmith of the USA Constitution.As far as the rest goes, I was never fond of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of selfishness, and ultimately, meritocracy heads in that direction. There are various other motifs crowded into socio-political packages that head in that general direction, so I'd like to say, it's fine for people to believe that and practise that, but it is to be hoped that those of a contrary point of view will be left alone to contemplate, perhaps even promote that point of view.