[atlarge-discuss] Individualism RE: [atlarge-discuss] ALOC Draft 3.0

[espresso@e-scape.net]

Count me in with the "Contrarians", JK. 

The American ideal of "individualism" you are asserting as preferable to regulation against abuses of economic or political power, not to mention downright crime, is precisely what gives us the Enrons and Adelphis as well as the Bhopals and Love Canals. Mussolini would have been entirely in favour of it -- as long as it applied to himself and not the ordinary disempowered Italian.

Individualism gives us the Wild West, the "right to pollute", and the freedom to rip off the helpless for as long as we can get away with it. Fascism offers us enslavement by a politico-military-industrial complex.

If some of us prefer to live, and have our neighbours live, under laws passed by the democratic governments we elect, it's hardly surprising. 

And it's not just a European notion, either -- though it's more popular in countries where history is taught as a serious subject. The U.S. Constitution, I seem to recall, says nothing about "every man for himself" amd a good deal about the rule of law and equality before it, while the Declaration of Independence was a direct response to an oppression by the selfish from which there was no other recourse.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Regards,

Judyth la pomme

--Original message--

"Jkhan" <Jkhan@MetroMgr.com> wrote:
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>IN THE INTREST OF FAIR PRESENTATION CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING  
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>I would also note here that I do have my Contrarians [the French
>Delegation; e.g.: J-F C.(Jefsey)Morfin], that bring up a very very
>interesting point of view, that I interpret as:
>
>Those who see individualism as selfishness and narcissism for which the
>only remedy is state planning and intervention are in full agreement
>with Mussolini, a bit of a narcissist himself, who said (as if
>anticipating Ira Magaziner) "The more complicated the forms assumed by
>civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must
>become." Bringing rights and powers over the bridge of tribe and class
>into the hands of government does not diminish world narcissism, it
>merely concentrates it in the people who think the rest of us should
>improve our characters by letting them tell us what to do.
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>I regret that I have only an American paradigm to offer, However I am
>open to any one who wishes to expound about their Nations' system.
>Well, that's just my opinion, and I may be wrong.
>
>jk


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Judyth Mermelstein  <espresso@e-scape.net> 
Montreal, Québec "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
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