Whats your beliefs, really...

I believe that a thread whose title uses "Whats" and "beliefs" and then doesn't have anything but the most unimaginatively coarse two-dimensional labels as choices isn't a serious thread.

Scarecrow Akhbar said:

I believe that a thread whose title uses "Whats" and "beliefs" and then doesn't have anything but the most unimaginatively coarse two-dimensional labels as choices isn't a serious thread.

Click to expand...

Then you are more than welcome not to post in it and move right along to some other hyper-partisan topic which will pique your hysterics in ways more to your liking.

jallman said:

I'm a conservative in this sense. I prefer to see change occur incrementally because I believe when too much is gained too fast, things have a much greater chance of spinning out of control and undoing any good that has been gained. I look at the how the Roman Empire turned out and I shudder.

Click to expand...

What changes did the Roman Empire make that you think were made too quickly, that made it fizzle out?

Cephus said:

Those are ridiculous definitions, by those definitions, *EVERYONE* has to be a liberal because *EVERYONE* knows that we need to make changes from time to time. Luckily, that's not what liberalism is, any more than your definition for what conservative is remotely accurate.

I'm a conservative in the classical sense, fiscally and socially.

Click to expand...

Well how would you define the two terms?

the makeout hobo said:

Here in America, "liberal" and "conservative" have so much excess baggage on them, so many extra connotations. But when you break them down to their roots, their true meaning, the words apply to someone's relationship to the status quo.

A Liberal is someone who wants to make changes and reforms within the system.

A Conservative is someone who wants to leave the system as it is, or make only the smallest and incrimental of changes.

A Radical is someone who wants to completely overthrow the system and replace it with something very different.

A Reactionary wants to remove changes made in the system, back to an earlier state.

By those four definitions, how do you characterise your beliefs in relationship to the power structure in your country?

Click to expand...

I'm politically moderate conservative as you defined, personally a radical anarchist who have suddenly changed my lifestyle many times in many ways.

the makeout hobo said:

What changes did the Roman Empire make that you think were made too quickly, that made it fizzle out?

Click to expand...

Well for one, I think it expanded way too fast. It became a beuracratic monster that couldn't be controlled. For another, I think the constant adoption of conquered peoples' deities into their pantheons was a big mistake in that their religious structure was constantly shifting and there was no tradition to bind the people together in a cohesive way beyond politics, which were violent and bloody to begin with. Further, morality was so shifting that it spun wildly out of control and you had things like gladiatorial combats with unarmed slaves against lions. WTF? I read once that at a coronation, the coliseum was flooded and the new emperor was pulled on a boat by 7 slave boys and the alligators subsequently released into the waters to devour the slave boys once the emperor was in his box. And that's how the games STARTED that day.

It was a free for all attitude and it brought destruction on Rome and it made the people weak against enemies from within and without.