I don’t think it’s helpful to think in terms of left and right. That presumes that each side is roughly a mirror analogue of the other.
Think in terms of forward and backward. Will your ideas and political leanings push society forward? Will you be making the world better than you found it? Or are you trying to resist change, fighting against progress because the status quo, or the recent past, benefits you in some way?
That’s better than thinking in terms of rigid spectrums, but I still ultimately think the division between socialism and capitalism is useful, ie the PRC is socialist, therefore left while the US Empire is capitalist, therefore right. Progressing forward requires socialism, but beyond that we can get lost in trying to compare how “left” people are as though that genuinely corresponds to material reality in a quantifiable manner. People don’t exist on a rigid spectrum, but generally correspond to different ideologies or parties with consistent policies or viewpoints.
Will your ideas and political leanings push society forward? Will you be making the world better than you found it? Or are you trying to resist change, fighting against progress because the status quo, or the recent past, benefits you in some way?
Strictly speaking, forwards and backwards can only be applied if one has both awareness and a realistic plan to help change the larger situation.
I would argue that it would impact the effectiveness of the effort, but the intention is just as important.
Like if you want to make the world a better place, you can pick up litter in your local area. You could volunteer at the library or conserve energy in whatever way is easiest for you. The desire to move forward is critical, because nobody has all the information. Nobody can know all the angles, and be aware of every impact. Everyone is just doing the best they can with the information they have.
Wanting to be better informed is also a progressive ideal. Know better, do better. We might discover that something we thought was beneficial is actually harmful. The difference between a conservative choice and a progressive choice is that when new information demonstrates that behaviors conflicts with values, the progressive changes their behaviors while a conservative changes their values.
I think what they’re getting at is that everyone is in favor of crime reduction, as an example, but that doesn’t make crime go down. It’s how you answer the how of that question that actually makes a material difference.
I don’t think it’s helpful to think in terms of left and right. That presumes that each side is roughly a mirror analogue of the other.
Think in terms of forward and backward. Will your ideas and political leanings push society forward? Will you be making the world better than you found it? Or are you trying to resist change, fighting against progress because the status quo, or the recent past, benefits you in some way?
That’s better than thinking in terms of rigid spectrums, but I still ultimately think the division between socialism and capitalism is useful, ie the PRC is socialist, therefore left while the US Empire is capitalist, therefore right. Progressing forward requires socialism, but beyond that we can get lost in trying to compare how “left” people are as though that genuinely corresponds to material reality in a quantifiable manner. People don’t exist on a rigid spectrum, but generally correspond to different ideologies or parties with consistent policies or viewpoints.
Strictly speaking, forwards and backwards can only be applied if one has both awareness and a realistic plan to help change the larger situation.
I would argue that it would impact the effectiveness of the effort, but the intention is just as important.
Like if you want to make the world a better place, you can pick up litter in your local area. You could volunteer at the library or conserve energy in whatever way is easiest for you. The desire to move forward is critical, because nobody has all the information. Nobody can know all the angles, and be aware of every impact. Everyone is just doing the best they can with the information they have.
Wanting to be better informed is also a progressive ideal. Know better, do better. We might discover that something we thought was beneficial is actually harmful. The difference between a conservative choice and a progressive choice is that when new information demonstrates that behaviors conflicts with values, the progressive changes their behaviors while a conservative changes their values.
I think what they’re getting at is that everyone is in favor of crime reduction, as an example, but that doesn’t make crime go down. It’s how you answer the how of that question that actually makes a material difference.
I can agree that intent is important for the local (picking up trash, helping to babysit, giving someone food).
There is no downside for trying.
I would argue that for the state and nation different standards should apply.
If one naively reinforces what they want to change, then it makes them a burden to society, if only a little.
We are designed to instinctively know the causes of issues in the small group. Understanding what we cannot see takes education