Not sure what to make of this. The author doesn't understand our view of RC, but --for the moment , anyway-- maybe this is a good thing. The interpretation presented here of what RC is all about does have the merit of starting from a fresh perspective. Our cafeteria approach to politics, really crucial to most of us ( pick and choose as a high virtue ) is missed, however, as is the East Coast ( New America Foundation ) "think outside the box:" approach, which, for each of us is what we are all about. But this new approach has other virtues that seem to be worth discussion down the line. Very thoughtful stuff. Billy =============================================== _The Mocking Eye_ (http://www.mockingeye.com/) ‘Tis all in vain?
(http://www.mockingeye.com/index.php/events/) Radical Centrism You are trying to decide what policy best helps the environment, or how to improve the lot of the poor, or maybe you just need to know how to vote in the primaries. Let’s have a look at the field: the right is too religious, war-mongering, corporatist and at times overly naive. The left is too socialist, bleeding heart, protectionist, and at times overly pessimistic. Libertarians are too crazy, sociopathic, self-centered, and at all times overly utopian. And those are just three of the biggest ones. Of course,these are generalization, and don’t apply to large swathes of the demographics represented by these labels. But there are fundamental problems with all these world-views, as well as any others that choose a way to view the world and their favourite method to tackle its problems before doing anything else. Introducing Radical Centrism. My conception of the idea is a little bit similar to the _radical center_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_center_(politics)) movement, but differs in what makes it radical. The movement’s name is derived from “radical” indicating “extreme”. My Radical Centrism takes its name from the non-political meaning of the term which arose from the latin “radix” meaning “root”. Thus, Radical Centrism views the problems of political ideologies to be buried deep with their very roots–their base assumptions and methodologies. Radical Centrism holds these positive values: 1. Reason This is the method by which any ideas must be described and deliberated. 2. Patience Rushing into decisions usually has more dire consequences than being too late. 3. Compassion It is better to do something that helps someone than something that doesn’t hurt anyone. And pledges these negative ones: 1. No Assumptions A problem cannot have any axioms. Priors must be dealt with according to positive considerations above. 2. No Axis Locating oneself on any ideological axis when solving a problem introduces invisible assumptions that will prevent arriving at a preferable solution. 3. No Conclusions Never make final decisions. Always be ready to update your priors and your solutions.
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