Almost Classical

CNN and other news outlets are reporting that Europeans prefer Obama to McCain by a 5:1 ratio. CNN: Cafferty File Why do we care do much about European opinions? These people don't have a single popular leader in their own nations. France's president is below 30% in the polls, Number 10 is (ironically) between 10 and 20% favorable, and even Germany, with a decent economy, doesn't give majority approval to the chancellor. So, these are relatively unhappy people, politically. They are beyond cynical — they're just plain unhappy. Part of the problem is that when you have a parliamentary system, the leaders in power seldom win leadership posts with a clear majority. You can cobble a parliamentary majority together with a 30% plurality and a dozen smaller, usually more radical, political parties. The end result is that no one is content. But, there is a larger reason: their systems, which they resoundingly claim are better than the U.S. system and our economic mode...

The downside to being a classical liberal (or libertarian, or whatever you wish to use) is that you find yourself grouped together with social conservatives by liberals who don't know any better and with socialists by conservatives who don't have a clue. I am not a social conservative, at least not in most ways. I am definitely not a socialist. Why people can't understand something in the middle is beyond me. Why do so many people the world to be "right/left" or "fundamental/atheist" in nature? What's wrong with complexity? Nuance? Questioning?

"Reality has a well-known liberal bias" seems to be a common response to complaints of liberal bias in the media and academia. Let us state the obvious: reality has no bias... how people react to it does. We hate suffering, especially the closer it is to "home" and our own situation. But, hating suffering does not make "reality" liberal. In fact, it makes reality absurd, cruel, and indifferent to human emotions. Floods, fires, famines, diseases, and other disasters have no political agendas. How we react to them does. Rhetorical flourishes that try to naturalize political beliefs are silly. If one political or economic model were "natural" and inherent in humanity, why has it not dominated? In fact, the only "natural" order I can see is that people try to protect themselves and their closest group -- regardless of what political or economic model might work at a given moment. Reality is unpredictable. It requires flex...