Does the Far Left's and far Right's notion that people need to protected from themselves...?

Question

have any merit?

Answer 1

I can see your point, if you are looking at the more recent right-wing administrations... Bush and the neo-con types.  But the "neoconservatives" actually migrated from the left.  They are not true conservatives, or even republicans.  

The true far-right, the Barry Goldwater/Ron Paul types... they are truly for small government.  Ron Paul has said that he wants to get rid of the Dept. of Energy, Education, Transportation, Homeland Security, close down the military bases that protect Germany, Japan and more.  Why are we still paying for the defense of Japan 60 years after WWII?  Japan spends 0 on defense, because we're all paying for it.  Anyway, by closing down all these expensive, bureaucratic nightmares we could get rid of the IRS and the income tax as well.  How does that sound for people taking care of themselves?

Sorry to digress, now to answer your question...

NO.  It has no merit.  It's all just a means of control and power.  

Here's a great video about how our government is SUPPOSED to work.  It also explains the difference between the true right and the true left in the polical spectrum...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uWdr_um2...

Milton Friedman, a true right-wing economist, explains why we can't let the government spend our money for us.  He explains that there are 4 ways to spend money...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un4-eI1T7...

Milton Friedman defends capitalism and freedom in an interview with Phil Donahue...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV...

I guess that explains how I feel about the government "protecting me" from myself or anyone else.  Good question.

Answer 2

No, it doesn't have any merit.  I don't see how I need to be protected from myself, but I do see how I need to be protected from someone like McCain who believes he can infringe on my constitutional right of choice....

Answer 3

No, because people know what is best for themselves, and even if they don't it is still up to them to make the wrong the decisions.

However I don't think right wing politics is about people needing protection from themselves as much as it is a Marxist policy.

Answer 4

I see the far left as someone who thinks the government should be the one to tell us what to decide.  I see the far right who see the government as incompetent b***s who haven't the qualification to make said decisions for us.  

Answer 5

You're prevailing under a mis-conception.

Your underlying premise is faulty.  

On the left end of the political spectrum is totalitarianism.  Any kind of totalitarianism, communism, fascism, socialism, dictatorship, religious ayatollahism etc.

On the right end of the political spectrum is liberty, defined as complete absence of government.  Liberty requires morality to exist.  A complete absence of government without morality is called anarchy.  Anarchy will always result in the powerful oppressing the vulnerable.  That is defined as totalitarianism, so even anarchy is left-wing.

The "far right", those moral enough to exist in a pure state of liberty, do not prevail under the mis-conception that people need to be protected from themselves.  Moral people respond to the needs of others.  

Those on the far left are there because they are lacking in morality.  Those lacking morality project their values onto others and believe that people need to be protected, but because they lack morals themselves, they want others to pay for it.  Lefties always want to raise taxes on someone other than themselves.  So they look around and see those with morals who conduct their trades successfully due to their morality in business, and they call them "rich".  "Tax the rich" becomes the mantra for the amoral left-wing totalitarians.

Does it have merit?  Depends on whether you're among moral people, or lefties.

Answer 6

It does, up to a point.  One must consider the consequences of those  behaviors being regulated.  Political Moderates are usually right when it comes down to how far should we go to regulate private behavior.  Otherwise, the government should stay out of trying to regulate morals.

Answer 7

Only the left thinks the government's responsblity is to save us all and take care of us, since we obviously cant seem to do it on our own

The right just wants people to stop whining and get off their butts and take care of themselves and their familes