America is on the verge of something fateful, but it cannot escape history - eviltoast

Of all the schisms that cleave contemporary America, few are more stark than the divide between those who consider themselves to be victims of US history and those who fear they will be casualties of its future.

  • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    Human nature has nothing to do with it, and whoever gave you that theory was selling something.

    “Progressives” are a form of liberal that seek to preserve the status quo by allowing minor alterations to relieve the pressure of the system’s internal contradictions. “Conservatives”, in contrast, are liberals who want to preserve the status quo by enforcing its hierarchies against whoever they perceive as being an outside influence.

    Classical Liberals, the whole lot of them.

    • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      I suppose the third type of person is a revolutionary, who wants to throw it away and start over. But then what, continue the cycle of revolution once the next generation arrives? Or is there an end point? Do you think it can actually be achieved? From a practical perspective, does human nature allow that?

      • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Yeah. It seems to me that a society that reinvents itself for each new generation would be more dynamic and responsive to the needs of the people it serves than the ten plus generations of stagnation we’ve had in the USA.