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30 sats \ 3 replies \ @Scoresby 13 Jun \ parent \ on: Portland's Politics and the Fall of Big Pink econ
my childhood (in a conservative family in the NW) was an exercise in listening to adults complain about politics.
when I got older, I got to know a lot of people who were quite happy with the way politics in the NW were going. I don't think they were power-hungry people. More like they are operating with wildly different values. Freedom is not as important to such a world view as fairness or equality. Seeking power for yourself is somewhat hard to hide from yourself, but seeking power on behalf of others, to do good for others...this is limitless and never feels bad. This is how we get such messed up systems.
Seeking power for yourself is somewhat hard to hide from yourself, but seeking power on behalf of others, to do good for others...this is limitless and never feels bad.
G.K. Chesterton:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Another way to say this is: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
People never see themselves as evil, do they? It is always the other guy doing the bad news stuff.