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AnimusRex -> RE: Virginias New GOP Governor Rolls Back Non-Discrimination Protections For Gay State Workers (2/21/2010 3:21:52 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy
Then they ultimately would fail (again, in a theoretical free market that could never exist).
Which is exactly where I think the conservative movement has driven off the cliff. They worship Capitalism, in the most abstracted and theoretical way, that could not ever exist.
This is exactly the thinking and methodoligy of the Left during most of the 1900's; they never cared about practical solutions, only dogmatic religious prescriptions.
Since it is taboo to question the theory, any failure must be explained by other factors, no matter what.
So for example if the Great Leap Forward didn't work, the only possible explanation was that the theory was not applied hard enough, or pure enough, or long enough.
Or if Wall Street crashes from speculative fever, it must be that capitalism wasn't given a chance, or pursued deeply enough, or long enough.
Both the Old Left and the present day conservatives share the belief that there is One Perfect System that can solve all our problems; they aren't willing to tolerate a mixed complex world where free markets and government regulations and public systems all share space and work together; instead they see purity and simplicity as the ultimate goals.
The basis of science, as others here have pointed out, is testability; if something can't be tested and proven true or untrue, then it is faith, not science. The second part of this is that empirical evidence trumps hypothesis.
There has never, ever in the history of the world been a successful society that was purely capitalistic or socialistic; the only ones that have ever been tried were spectacular failures.
So believing in the perfection of hypotheticals like government command economies, or purely free market economies requires an act of stupendous childlike faith, not reason.
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