Been looking at all these "Daily Mail" arguments people keep starting on CUK recently.
What is left or right? One can focus on details like belief in a national identity, universal care etc. etc. but it seems to me that these are just symptoms of a fundamental psychological difference.
Some on here I would regard as a bit lefty do put forward some extremely good arguments but, in my view, they are very intellectual and rather remote. The left are more likely to look for underlying reasons, to be concerned with a much wider picture in terms of time and space, more concerned about mankind in general, more into historical perspectives - hence the all too common references to Saxons in the context of immigration. Us righties, on the other hand, look at the here and now and we ask "How does this affect me and mine and, if it's a problem, what can I do to stop it?"
You could say the latter is just selfishness but the reality is that the left is equally intolerant, those who are adversely affected by their pursuit of their ideals are dismissed as unavoidable casualties. The effect of the global market on our jobs, the formation of the Eurozone without proper regulation or commonality of economies, the impact of immigration in inner city areas etc.
It seems to me that there should be a halfway house and the main solutions are to go much slower and to work with human nature as it is, not how we would like it to be. Some leftist ideals, like a United Europe or one world are great in principle, the real problem is the rush to implement them. Had we expanded the EU at a much slower pace, required countries to raise their GDP per capita before allowing free movement, required them to reform their economies before allowing them into the Eurozone, it would all be working a lot better. Now the resentments that were largely dead have all been stirred up again and the whole project is in peril.
What is left or right? One can focus on details like belief in a national identity, universal care etc. etc. but it seems to me that these are just symptoms of a fundamental psychological difference.
Some on here I would regard as a bit lefty do put forward some extremely good arguments but, in my view, they are very intellectual and rather remote. The left are more likely to look for underlying reasons, to be concerned with a much wider picture in terms of time and space, more concerned about mankind in general, more into historical perspectives - hence the all too common references to Saxons in the context of immigration. Us righties, on the other hand, look at the here and now and we ask "How does this affect me and mine and, if it's a problem, what can I do to stop it?"
You could say the latter is just selfishness but the reality is that the left is equally intolerant, those who are adversely affected by their pursuit of their ideals are dismissed as unavoidable casualties. The effect of the global market on our jobs, the formation of the Eurozone without proper regulation or commonality of economies, the impact of immigration in inner city areas etc.
It seems to me that there should be a halfway house and the main solutions are to go much slower and to work with human nature as it is, not how we would like it to be. Some leftist ideals, like a United Europe or one world are great in principle, the real problem is the rush to implement them. Had we expanded the EU at a much slower pace, required countries to raise their GDP per capita before allowing free movement, required them to reform their economies before allowing them into the Eurozone, it would all be working a lot better. Now the resentments that were largely dead have all been stirred up again and the whole project is in peril.
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