| Author | Message | ||
     Karl Loren Moderator Username: Kloren Post Number: 3 Registered: 05-2003 |
The central issue about politics IS morality. While this entire web site is devoted to discussion of news items in various subject categories, the discussion is intended to be done from a perspective of morality. For "politics" the central issue IS morality. Morality is not a side issue with politics. Click on the link to visit the summary page, on this web, for Morality In Politics. Use your back button to return to this page. Restoration Of Honesty In Politics. There is a terrible disease that infects certain people. It should be recognized. Since it is infectious there is a crying need to avoid those who already have the disease. There is an easy cure, but when people will not take the cure, the disease is more contagious and even more it is terminal. The disease is called "moral blindness" and is caught by three actions: First a person has a transgression against the moral code. Somehow that transgression is exposed, or suspected. Third the person denies he has transgressed. That is all it takes. Once all these three things have happened, he has the disease called "moral blindness." The consequences of this disease are that he has a strong compulsion to continue to transgress and to continue to deny -- thus spiraling himself into further and further complications of the disease. He, of course, would never be the agent of the exposure, since that is the cure for the disease, so there are those who make it their life to find and expose transgressions. The criminal transgressions are pretty well in hand with the court system, but moral transgressions depend on public opinion to cure those who are diseased by insisting on isolation of the diseased from honest men -- they must be cut out from infecting those who do not have the disease. This "cut out" can not be by law, since morals should never be enforced by law. It is you and me who must, individually, shun this immoral person, and speak out about him to others. Eventually he is isolated by the actions of moral people. It is NOT a fast process, nor easy! You are the key! When as many as half the population and half the current crop of politicians suffer from moral blindness, and somehow, the other half do not? What can the moral group do? Discussion groups like this one help, but the truly effective technology is to recognize that these people have set themselves up as the enemy, and cannot be defeated except with a full understanding of two ancient sources of advice. Click to read Sun Tzu. and Clausewitz. Additionally, this disease of moral blindness makes the victim hypnotic, not susceptible to logic and reason, thus public relations skills are of paramount importance. PR works on the emotional level, not the level of logic and reason. PR has become extremely important for the restoration of honesty in our political life. Thus the "cutting out" of the diseased person can be done through effective public relations, probably applying the advice in Sun Tzu and Clausetwitz! There is a side issue -- he who has, himself, not transgressed, but defends the transgressor also catches the disease, himself, then, becomes much more prone to commit transgressions of his own, and to continue to deny that these actions are transgressions. So the contagion of immorality stalks our land! Unfortunately for their party, and for the country, the Democrats are, many of them, infected with this disease. The more anyone points out their transgressions, the more they deny, thus the more severe is their case of this disease.  "I never had sex with that woman!" Bill Clinton was the single most immoral President this country has ever had -- it is not just the transgressions, but that they have been publicly exposed and then denied. A secret transgression, if never exposed, hardly ever gives rise to this disease. But, when any moral flaw is exposed, and then denied, that flaw rides along with that person forever -- making it all the harder to ever confess that it was a transgression. It is well accepted that quick confession is the best solution to being caught in any transgression, but quick confession, is, alas, not the common treatment. The self-treatment is too often silence in the face of allegation. When this happens, the disease sets in with a vengeance. What is the vengeance? It is that the person is now in a downward spiral of morality, compelled to commit more transgressions, to continue to deny, and to make it all the harder to ever confess -- leading finally to not just the disease of moral blindness, but "death from corruption!" The Democratic Party will not recover any moral standing until individual Democrats break from this mold and speak the truth about the immoral behavior of not only Clinton, but of all the millions who defended Clinton. The common man? The voter? He would help himself if he could admit his own sin and confess to the immoralality of defending immorality. But, since he is the common man he can slink away, unrepentant, and live a quiet life of personal moral blindness. The public figures can never slink away. They have covered themselves with the stink of transgression and denial -- never to be clean without confession and contrition for their transgressions. I don't see that happening among the current crop of Democrats. Why don't the voters see this moral blindness in these Democrats? Because so many, as many as half the population, are themselves infected with this same moral blindness. The business leaders who have led our economy into the tank by their corrupted accounting and false reports on profits? They are part of the same disease -- it is not just politicians that have caught this disease -- but the very leaders of industry as well as government. This nation is going through a cleansing -- it will probably take a generation to complete so that we can finally arrive at honest Democrats and honest businessmen who make our democracy possible and our economy free of taint. | ||
| Walters_tirades New member Username: Walters_tirades Post Number: 2 Registered: 05-2003 |
Folks in Houston are absolutely 'outraged' at our Legislature being shut down due to the childish antics of the Democratic Party in the Texas House. The Texas House has been dominated by Democrats for 130 years. Every 10 years voting districts have been gerrymandered to maintain Democratic control. Not once in those 130 years did the Republican minority ever resort to such childish "can't get my way" politics. Now for the first time, Republicans have the opportunity to do some gerrymandering, Democrats in the state (after having made their camera confessions of 'working together' with the new administration) fled in protest rather than stay and argue their positions. Virtually shutting down this legislative session and ensuring the governor has to call a "special session" at great cost to taxpayers. I am no longer convinced these types of shenanigans can be corrected at the ballot box. Who will hold them accountable? Even worse, there is no avenue for an American's voice to be heard unless of course you own a newspaper or radio station. Another of Walter's Insensitive Tirades | ||
| Karl Loren Moderator Username: Kloren Post Number: 17 Registered: 05-2003 |
I, by nature, am an optimist, and hate to see someone as insightful as Walter give up. I am well aware of my own weaknesses in taking responsibility for "government," and gently ask Walter if he knows the names of every member of his "city counsel" or whatever it is called, and has been to political meetings on the local level? Politics at the national level are, of course, apparently out of our reach, but the local mayor, or alderman, or even police chief will usually respond to a visit, or an opinion. You have to learn about the local issues, and they are often not dramatic, but, for instance, is Ritalin used in YOUR schools? There is an issue to go find out about! | ||
| Walters_tirades New member Username: Walters_tirades Post Number: 3 Registered: 05-2003 |
Thanks for the compliment. Being insightful is not a spectator sport. I am intimately involved in local issues and still maintain the position that a 'moral dilemma' for a public servant is, in my view, when they realize that "Doing the right thing has no party affilliation. And, if I do the right thing, these politicians (in Austin) will make my life much more miserable than my constituents in Houston ever will. So, I'll just smile for the camera here in Ardmore, OK, and the bias media will paint us as victims of the vast Texas Republican Majority Conspiracy!" I live in an uncorporated area of Houston. My involvement in local issues is generally unwelcome due to my passion for exposing corruption. A barn burner issue for me is a multi-million dollar High School football stadium built with tax $'s with water sprinklers working overtime to keep the outside grass nice and green will sit idle for months at a time and I (a taxpayer who helped pay for it) am forbidden to use the track to walk a few miles - I have to walk on the side of the road at great risk. And if you can believe this the school board has no interest in my concerns. Forgive the rambling, but I have seen many good people get involved in local and state issues only to be ignored by those in a position to make positive changes and the media's lack of interest in stories without Nobel Peace Prize potential. I actually haven't given up I just don't have the resources left to fight for what I believe in anymore. Gotta quit - getting all worked up. | ||
| Dennis Meredith New member Username: Denny Post Number: 1 Registered: 11-2003 |
Walter, you may not see this as the posts seem to be somewhat drawn out chronologically but I am in agreement. There is no way possible to fix what ails us at the ballot box. As I see it this only leaves three options. 1) Look for a cave in some desolate part of the planet. 2) Learn to live under a totalitarian government. 3) Replay 1776. I had to laugh at myself just now. The frog has been boiled and it's all over but the cryin' as they say. The common man has willfully given up his birth right as an American. I guess we were all to busy vacationing, becoming internet millionaires or making time with the neighbors wife to notice that the nation was taken over by a bunch of pandering lackeys that would sell their mothers souls for a buck. As I ponder on it I think that we as Americans are getting exactly what we deserve. What we see going on in the state houses and inside the beltway is a damned sad commentary on us all. | ||
| Dennis Meredith New member Username: Denny Post Number: 2 Registered: 11-2003 |
Oh yeah Karl, I'm not 100% positive about this but I think it's illegal to use the words "honest" and "politician" in the same sentence. | ||
| Karl Loren Moderator Username: Kloren Post Number: 46 Registered: 05-2003 |
Dear Dennis, I humbly apologize. You are right. Perhaps if the words are separated by lots of commas, or *$)(#&$_+@ signs, the word "honest" and "politician" could be in the same line? Regards, Karl Loren | ||
| Lucy Burns New member Username: Goldfinch Post Number: 1 Registered: 02-2004 |
I'm new here (obviously). This is quite a topic. I have lots of thoughts about this issue. Politics used to be like chess -- you evaluated your opponent's strengths and positions, and then responded or attacked accordingly. Now, however, one side has abandoned the rules and will win at any cost, even to the point of overturning the board, while the other side seems oblivious to this, and is still trying to play by the rules it thinks still remain. What's the solution? I have no idea. We are so conditioned to the "sound bite" that our attention span and abiltity to digest information pertaining to complex issues has shrunk to miniscule proportions. We are reduced to thinking in terms or hardhitting slogans or quick retorts. Perhaps it is true that we can affect changes on a local level, but I don't despair of having some effect on national policy. So many people never bother to write or call, but our elected offials do sometimes listen. I have to hope, and I have to be involved, because of my children and granchildren. Lucy | ||
| Karl Loren Moderator Username: Kloren Post Number: 48 Registered: 05-2003 |
I am starting a new practice for this web site of publishing articles and opinions of interest and noting them in these threads. There is a fascinating couple of articles here -- one from the Wall Street Journal and the other from a variety of sources, many in India, and also the Dow Jones News Service. WSJ: Why Do Dems call Bush a liar? Hot Nuclear Secrets Leaking All Over the Planet -- Just in time? |
