It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life
does not lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy of life lies in
having no goal to reach.
Benjamin E. Mays
Progressive?
I think we get caught up too much in labels. Take "liberal'; for most Americans, it refers to 'left of center' politics. But from a standpoint of liberty: individual and local community autonomy from some central authority. English social contract theory had progressed from the concession of some modest liberties for the security under Hobbes' authoritarian Leviathan (where man in his natural state lays claim to everything and hence at conflict with all for all) to John Locke's theory based on man born with reason and focusing on the consent of the governed, unalienable rights, separation of powers, and separation of church and state. Just as the Protestant Reformation was a liberation of individual religious experience from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, Locke provided a theoretical liberation of individuals and their voluntary associations from the yolk of a political hierarchy. This is behind a recent quotation of the day cited by Don Boudreaux:
Something remarkable happened in the seventeenth century, as John Locke and other philosophers began to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable. They suggested, if only indirectly, that government is not absolutely necessary for the existence of society, that social order and even justice can be maintained to some degree without political institutions. Just as the authority of religious institutions had previously been undermined by Protestant Reformers, so the authority of political institutions now faced a serious challenge from liberal individualists. - George Smith, The System of LibertyDon Boudreaux does a very nice job extrapolating on and cross-referencing voluntary associations. But one thing I want to point out is his reference to true progressives. Don's post commentary is worthy reading of its own accord; I'll paraphrase his message as follows; true progressives work voluntarily, not adopting the tools and method of Hobbes' monarch to impose his will on the uncivil, brutish masses.
I became increasingly skeptical of so-called liberals, even during my salad days when I was a registered Democrat. I've mentioned a couple of early experiences in past posts. While I attended my mom's home parish school (my Dad was securing family housing at his new assignment), my class had "adopted" a black family in DC. The sister in class had extensive wishlists for the family including food, clothing, and other essentials but also minor items, including one I'll never forget--the family man's favorite brand of cigarettes. Even at that point, I had a concept of moral hazard and also knew that smoking was a nasty, unhealthy, expensive habit we shouldn't be subsidizing.
Several years later at OLL, the politically active Chicano organization on campus started picketing; I lived in the same dorm with many of the protesters. I was unhappy enough to sign a counter-petition; among other things, they were smearing some of the professors as racists, including one of the Sisters of Divine Providence with a Spanish surname, who was one of my own professors: not a single protester could explain the grievance against her. They filed a federal complaint being under-representation of Chicano faculty. In fact, many of the faculty were CDP and Oblates; for example, we had a small philosophy department, which mostly consisted of a Czech-American sister (and niece of the Houston archbishop) and two Oblate priests, at least one, probably both Irish immigrant Americans. which got cited in the federal report. The facts are, there were a limited number of Latino academics, and they had almost every prestigious college in the country chasing them; there were a very limited number of Latino vocations, something which persists to this very day:
According to the Secretariat’s executive director, Fr. Shawn McKnight, Latinos account for 34 percent of the overall adult Catholic population, but only 15 percent of the 2011 ordination class and 10 percent of the 2010 religious profession class, both of which were studied in the reports. “There is not enough objective data to explain the reasons for their underrepresentation,” Fr. McKnight said.This is a college which was located in the middle of the barrio, where many sisters lived not in the on-campus convent but in the surrounding community, where Latinos compromised a plurality of students, which pushed the Church's social justice teachings, required multicultural readings, invited relevant speakers, etc. That "investigation" was pushing-on-a-string totally political abuse of process. This university was enrolling some of the first family members to enter college; some of my fellow students were children of migrant farm workers. No good deed goes unpunished.
In any event, I learned fairly early in life people often had differing points of view (e.g., abortion, religion, etc.) and were emotionally vested in them. But even then I believed in the free market of ideas; I generally never had the power to impose my point of view and never wanted to do so; in part, that's why in GOP politics, I've generally opposed ideological or red meat campaigns. One of the problems I had with Ron Paul didn't involve his positions but his strident rhetoric; his influence among colleagues was limited.
I do consider myself a classic liberal in the tradition of Adam Smith and John Locke. Social liberals tend to confuse means with ends and often ending up creating a morally corrupt enabling dependence on social programs. Even worse, these programs are implemented from top-down perspective. In information systems you often hear the dictum "top-down design, bottom-up implementation". CyberQat makes a salient point that can easily be applied to public policy:
This results in a software design that is well focused on the goal, but also is built in clear and separable layers. Top down design is a matter of designing software functionality and interfaces to that functionality. In today's object oriented world it can be seen as a form of "encapsulation' but it is a very specific form that leads to software with some very good properties. Should any individual layer prove to have an issue it can be fixed or replaced with no impact on the layers above it and below it. Higher layers can be stripped away without sacrificing lower level functionality. Finally, each layer can be created by people with the best understanding of that layers' functionality.
Non-engineering management can often get confused and think that "empowering the workers" means asking every engineer's opinion on everything. Or worse, asking everyone's opinion on every functional part of the process from engineering to art to game design.
Part of empowerment is authority. And if you give everyone equal authority over everything, then noone has authority over anything. A football team where everyone is trying to play quarterback doesn't get very far down the field.
So, empower your people... but empower them to do *their* jobs, not everyone else's. Trust that you have hired the right people for the right positions and let them play them without undo interference from others with other functions. That is true empowerment.
There's a big difference between outlining policy goals and controlling what happens on the state/local level--not to mention there are unintended consequences to government monopoly "solutions" to private-sector initiatives.
Going back to the definitions of progressive philosophy, we can see progress in terms of private-sector solutions and/or operational-level government alternatives and evidence thereof. A public sector solution by its nature is anti-competitive. If we look at the infamous Progressive Era in the early twentieth century, we saw a rapid expansion of government and costs, but few commensurate benefits. Then Hillary Clinton and others lay claim to being "modern progressives". In the face of decades of progressive program failures and nothing new to offer but to expand the federal empire, regardless of cost.
A Controversial High School Valedictory
I still wish I had a do-over of my own high school valedictory; oddly enough, nobody ever discussed my address with me in advance; I had never read or heard one, so I didn't really address some of the common themes of farewell, future, knowledge is power; I focused more on our readiness to meet the challenges. I had accelerated my graduation (the idea of the high school counselor whom thought I was ready for college work and they didn't have resources to challenge gifted students) and had attended few of the same classes (I even took English IV before English III the preceding summer, an impulsive decision I've never regretted. I don't recall the specific reason--it may have been feedback about the teacher in the course, and the school let me.) So I didn't have a close relationship with fellow students. The senior class, over my loud objections, voted to graduate in school colors--orange (i.e., Longhorns); I felt really stupid in an orange gown. I think buying the gown was only a buck or two more over renting it--who would know there was a limited rental market for orange gowns. I don't know why I kept it--maybe if I had kids, they could wear it at Halloween as the Great Pumpkin...
My opinion of this notorious clip about a South Carolina valedictorian changed after I learned about the context. Roy Costner pointedly ripped up his prepared speech and eventually launched into the Lord's Prayer. I am generally opposed to using public events to promote religious beliefs, and the Lord's Prayer is specifically Christian. I think he could have made his point with a more general prayer. However, the bigger issue was a policy banning prayer, presumably even an invocation, at the ceremony. I don't like the fact Costner went for cheap pops, but I respect his principled protest to a policy violating free speech rights, and he had the chutzpah to risk school district sanctions. I generally favor a separation of Church and state, but to me the issue is one involving judgment of the nature and extent of relevant activities.
Military Daddy-Daughter Reunions
The only birthday present she really wanted (first video, last clip)...
Political Humor
How ironic is that? We wanted a president that listens to all Americans - now we have one. Yeah...I mean what's going on? The White House has looked into our phone records, checking our computers, monitoring our e-mails. When did the government suddenly become our psycho ex-girlfriend? When did that happen? - Jay Leno[Obama'a Share Everything plan. You are automatically enrolled--no pesky informed consent forms to sign. At no cost to you (except for federal income taxpayers).]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups Redux
Simon and Garfunkel, "Fakin' It"
