Hi Billy, On Jan 10, 2012, at 9:19 AM, [email protected] wrote: > I agree that pessimism added to centrism produces populism. > But it this necessarily a bad thing ? The best answer is "it depends." > What is the anger directed against ? An appropriate object of anger > and populism is a good thing. Anger in defense of racism or any other > form of injustice and then it is an evil.
You could go so far as to say "populism == anger", and turn this into a discussion about the value of anger. I like to say anger is a great stop sign, but a lousy street sign: it tells you something important is happening here, but not where you are or where to go next. On Jan 10, 2012, at 9:16 AM, Mike Gonzalez wrote: > I can go with "rational evolvement". Popper called the concept "piecemeal > social engineering". He thought the difference between piecemeal and utopian > engineering was, "the difference between a reasonable method of improving the > lot of man, and a method which, if really tried, may easily lead to an > intolerable increase in human suffering. It is the difference between a > method which can be applied at any moment, and a method whose advocacy may > easily become a means of continually postponing action until a later date, > when conditions are more favorable. And it is also the difference between the > only method of improving matters which has so far been really successful, at > any time, and in any place, and a method which, wherever it has been tried, > has led only to the use of violence in place of reason, and if not to its own > abandonment, at any rate to that of its original blueprint. I guess "incremental utopianism" would work for an oxymoron. Though "rational evolution" is also a nice oxymoron, and as a bonus contrasts well with "intelligent design". -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
